When Doves Fall
by SeltzerBaby
Summary: Mira Persteria is, somehow, a daughter of The Fates, & everyone is rushing to claim her as their own.  But when demi-gods start disapearing after the whole camp attends one of Apollo's wild parties, Mira & five others sneak away to bring back the children
1. I Meet A Girl Who Tells Me I'm Orange

**This is my first Percy Jackson fic, so go easy on me, but tell m what you think in the comments! :D This happens three summers after The Last Olympian, so The Heroes of Olympus never happened...mostly cuz i didn't read them yet... o_O**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jacksn franchise, everything that includes, or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Grover's POV<strong>

Music ran rampant through the walkways of the suburban street. I could hear giggling laughter and splashes; I could smell food cooking and the slick scent of sunscreen on young flesh, and beneath it all, a vital undercurrent that ran through one of them in their blood, the powerful, intoxicating smell of demi-god. There was a girl here who was supposedly a Class Five demi-god, which was surprising, 'cause I didn't even know what a Class Five was. But now that I was here, I could smell her a mile away-it was crazy that she wasn't dead already.

I hobbled to the door, fake feet and crutches at the ready, and gave it a tap. An older woman answered the door with a smile. "Who are you?"

"I'm Grover Underwood, ma'am. I'm looking for a Mira Peristeria? Is she here?"

"Yes she is! Come on in, I'll get her for you."

I followed her through the house and out to the deck while the teenagers in the house gawked at my crutches. It was like they'd never seen a cripple before!

"Mira! There's someone here for you!"

A girl floating in the pool turned around and got up, moving towards us.

If Juniper ever gets a hold of this I'll be dead, but the girl was drop-dead gorgeous. If she hadn't smelt so powerful, I'd assume she was on of Aphrodite's, but as a Lord of the Wild, I didn't go get just anyone. Her hair was already drying in the sticky heat of June, and it was bouncing in wet curls as she flounced her way over to us.

"Yeah?" Eyes of molten silver appraised me, saw into my soul and asked questions of me that I shouldn't be able to answer.

"_Baaa-_uh, I'm Grover Underwood, and, uhm, you need to come with me. Now."

She cocked her head, gave me a confused smile, and said "You're a little impatient, aren't you, Mr. Underwood?" Her words were a laugh, but I saw her tense up at the exact moment I did, almost as if she could smell it, too. She went to turn around, but I couldn't let her do that-not quite yet at least.

"No, we really have to go now!" I grabbed her wrist and took off running, crutches in one hand, Mira in the other. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw seven heads and a scaly beast throwing itself at us.

"A hydra! Exactly what we need!"

"Did you just say that was a _hydra_?"

We reached my truck just as she turned around and saw it. The Mist wouldn't protect her anymore, not with me around, and so she had no choice but to fight for her life or die trying.

"Take this, and try not to get killed! I'm going to call for reinforcements!" I threw her mass-made sword I kept for emergencies such as these, and ran for my reed pipes and my phone.

I simultaneously dialed and played, growing trees around the hydra's feet, and Mira held her own battling with one of the heads. She was untrained and rough around the edges, but combat proved her worth. She ducked the fire it spat and attempted to stab it when she could. Suddenly, when the person on the other end picked up the phone, the hydra swerved itself towards me.

I only had time to yell "Perce!" into the receiver before I was running for my life, playing desperately.

While I was distracting it, I saw Mira run for the phone, where Percy was still listening on the other end. She grabbed it, and I heard her scream. "Perseus Jackson, I don't care how you do it but get your sorry little ass here _now_ or else we're going to become hydra food!" With that she slammed the phone shut and leapt at the hydra. With a feint worthy of the best warriors, she dodged the five heads that went for her, sprinted beneath the creature's stomach with a speed that looked like she was about to fall on her face, and slide backwards, slicing it open from below as she went.

It almost looked surprised when it disintegrated, covering Mira in a fine dust that made her look even more ethereal, and I could only stare.

"That was awesome!" I jumped, and one of my feet came off. Looking at my exposed hoof, she barely blinked, obviously used to the mythological by now, and then I realized she had said Percy's name.

"How did you know who I was talking to?" I was sort of in a hurry, since more monsters like the hydra would soon be catching up to us, so shouted the question as we got in the truck.

"I-I don't know. I just did. I could tell who the number linked to. He seems blue." She seemed almost pensive, wondering and pondering about how she could possibly know an impossible thing.

"What?"

"He seems blue. Not a blue like this blue, though." She waved in the general direction of her bathing suit-it was navy blue, now covered in gold monster dust. "An almost green kind of blue. Full of little glitches, that almost shimmers like…like water."

For the second time in ten minutes, she had rendered me speechless.

She offered me an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I have synesthesia. People's names trigger colors."

"Sweet…what color am I?"

"Grover Underwood…" She rolled my name around on her tongue, as if she could taste the colors as well. "Orange. A very deep, natural orange."

"Orange? Really?" I started the truck.

"Don't worry-orange is a very majestic color." She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes, and gave me a crooked smile.

Heat rose in my cheeks. "I, ah, I have a girlfriend."

She smiled at me again, jokingly this time. "What does that have to do with anything? Congrats I guess!"

Just at that moment there was the thud of hooves on the pavement next to Mira's window. In a second she had the sword out pointed right at the gulping throat of…

"Perce!" I could almost hug him-the last thing I needed was Juniper getting pissed at me for coming in with a gold covered supermodel by myself. If Percy was with us, I could blame it on him.

"So you're Percy Jackson…" She titled her head in much the same way she had done with me, as if she could see his soul through his eyes. "You're a little late, aren't you?"

I could see he was a little dumb-founded at the bikini-clad girl with the sword.

"Meet Mira. She's the Class Five everyone's been talking about. She says you're blue."

He was even more confused now, letting his hand, on its way to Riptide, drop. "Wha-"

He was cut off by a neigh from Blackjack, whom he obviously rode here at record speed. The horse was right. I could smell monsters coming.

"They're coming fast, and there's a lot!" I translated for the pegasus.

"That truck's never going to make it in time!" Percy had to scream over the sound of the screams in the house-apparently they thought we were all insane.

"How else are we supposed to get to Camp Half-Blood?"

"Everyone get on the freakin' horse!" We weren't moving fast enough for Mira, so she grabbed her sword, threw herself out of the car and launched behind Percy. I saw his eyes visibly widen as she grabbed him around the waist, and I couldn't help but notice that some of the dust was rubbing off onto him. I snickered-Annabeth was going to be _pissed_.

"Uhm, I have a girlfriend." I could see Percy trying to restrain himself from either pushing her away or grabbing her.

"What is it with you people and telling me that? Great for you, great for her, I hope you live happily ever after in a castle with cartoon forest creatures doing the chores for you but right now I just want to _not get killed_! Now Grover if you don't get on Blackjack's back in the next fifteen seconds I am feeding you to whatever's after us!"

Next thing I know, I'm sitting on Blackjack's butt, wondering how she knew his name, wondering how in all of Hades Perce and I were going to explain to our girlfriends how we got Mira's body glitter all over ourselves. Not that it wasn't nice, but there would be consequences.

We fought off a swarm of rouge harpies, a weird, sick dragon, and another hydra-this one with wings. Percy did most of the work, since I couldn't do much this far from the ground and Mira was still so very new.

We weren't able to kill the second hydra, since we nearly crash landed into the center of camp and it couldn't follow us through the barrier.

Mira jumped off as quickly as possible and shook herself off, in a way that was doglike and yet attractive. Now with part of the dust on me and part of the dust on Percy and most of it on Mira and Blackjack's back, it looked like we'd engaged in a midair ménage à trois. Since I was the one who went and got her, I had to report immediately to Chrion and Mr. D. so there wasn't much I could do to get the stuff off of me before I was seen in public. Speaking of public…

It seems that an impromptu meeting had been called right where we landed. Suddenly everyone, including Annabeth and Juniper, was staring at me, standing with one foot, one hoof, and a crotch full of dust, Percy, sitting astride Blackjack's equally dusty back with acrid female hand marks all over his chest, and Mira, half-naked and stunning, the obvious source of our unwanted sexual innuendos.

"So, could I maybe get some clothes and a shower?"

87% percent of the male demi-gods sprung up to help her after a brief, stunned pause-those who didn't had girlfriends clinging to them with hopeless abandon.

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><p><strong>Don't forget to review!<strong>


	2. The Fates Drop In For A Chat

**Hello again! If you're reading this, it's nice to meet you (: You can review if you want! It's great thing to do :P**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise, or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Percy's POV<strong>

After we landed and the guys jumped up, offering Mira their clothes and a ton of showers, the Aphrodite girls, assuming she was one of them, took her under their wing and got her all cleaned up while we waited in the Big House. Chiron and Mr. D played pinochle while Grover and I tried desperately to explain to our girlfriends that-

"_Nothing happened_ I swear!"

"You were both _covered_ in _glitter_ from her half-naked _body_, and you're telling me that_ nothing happened_?"

"We all had to fit on one pegasus! Would you have rather we got killed by harpies?"

"Well, maybe I would! Then you wouldn't have fooled around with that _girl_ on a flying _horse_!"

Annabeth was no longer talking to me, Juniper was crying those weird green tears of hers in Grover's arms, and the rest of the cabin leaders were just watching with an awestruck fascination as our lives slowly went to Hades.

Just at that moment Mira walked in with Stacey Selivetti, one of the Aphrodite girls that helped her out, and this didn't help our arguments at all. Thank the gods, though, when she saw the turmoil she had caused, she called both Juniper and Annabeth over to her, and set the record straight. It was obvious that, even though not minutes before they were accusing us of having done a lot more than flown with her, they trusted her word more than ours, especially now that she was fully clothed. I couldn't hear exactly what she said but I heard "mentioned he had a girlfriend immediately" and "nothing happened on the horse", which set the record _fully_ straight. The girls came over to us and apologized, contrite look on their faces, and Mira walked to where Chiron, in his wheelchair, and M. D were sitting.

"I'm sorry. I should have known you wouldn't do that. I just…"

"It's okay." Our words were whispers, and I gave Annabeth a light kiss on the forehead as she snuggled up under my arm. Warmth filled me from where she touched, but I didn't have much time to think about it, because then the meeting started.

"Good morning, Mira." She smiled at him. "My name is Chiron, and this is Mr. D." The god waved at her absent mindedly." I would say for Grover to show you the orientation film, but it appears that you've already been fully oriented on the most pressing of matters. Now, here at Camp Half-Blood, all the campers are demi-gods. Do you know what that means?"

"In Greek mythology, a demi-god was the son or daughter of a god and a mortal." She said it like a child of Athena, one who was all facts and knowledge.

Chrion beamed at her. "Very good! The thing is, you're here because you're one, too. Now, the dyslexia and the ADHD are all natural, it's part of your Greek heritage and-"

"But I don't have dyslexia, or ADHD."

Silence ran through the whole room. Chrion swallowed, and Mr. D began to whistle a depressingly merry tune.

"Then how are you even here?" This was Clarisse, being her usual cantankerous self, rude as always. "If she doesn't have those then she's not a demi-god. How did you get through the barrier?"

"Yeah, but she's got synesthesia, so that's gotta count for something, right?" Grover was the first to speak up for her, obviously already in her corner. I could see Juniper tighten her fists at his comment.

"Synesthesia?" Chiron asked her.

"Yeah. When I hear a name, I see colors, in a single line across my vision that leads to them, almost like a thread. For instance, when I heard your name, I saw grey. It was very pale, almost withered, as if it had been left in the sun too long, but it was also strong. You're very old, aren't you? Much older than you look. And like Grover," Her head tilted sideways. "You're not exactly…human, are you?"

Chrion stared for a bit, and then stood up from his wheelchair, revealing the part of him that was a stallion. "I was granted immortality from Zeus for as long as I stayed at Camp Half-Blood and trained the demi-gods. You see a lot, don't you?"

She smiled at him.

"Oh, and she knows people's names. Like, before she even hears them. It's crazy, man." Then Grover told the story of how he knew my name, and Blackjack's, and Juniper's face grew darker, as if she was ready to throttle him with a branch. I decided that I would be better off if I never mentioned Mir to Annabeth, ever.

"Interesting…" Annabeth examined her, almost as if she wanted to know what made her tick. Well, maybe I could wait until they were friends. The way she was going, she was Athena's kid already.

"Maybe she's just a human, with the ability to see through the mist…" Now doubt was beginning to spread on the faces of the campers. This was not good. Doubt meant division, and that was never good unless it was friendly.

"No, she's definitely something, we're sure of that; we're just not sure what. Grover, explain?"

He hopped up, gave Juniper a quick kiss, which brought a little light back to her eyes and took center stage.

"The satyrs have made a system for classifying demi-gods that we're supposed to go collect. It doesn't reflect on the strength or importance of the demi-god themselves, but on the threat to their safety that their smell provokes. Class One is all the lesser gods and goddesses, which means that very few monsters will be after them. Class Two is the gods and goddesses on Olympus that aren't the Big Three. Class Three is, well, the Big Three, like Percy and Nico."

"Whoo, go Big Three!" Nico and I air-high-fived across the room while everyone else rolled their eyes at our idiocy.

"Shut up, Percy. Then there's Class Four, which is a child of two demi-gods, with both powers. Mira is Class Five. A letter appeared in my mailbox alerting me of her presence, which specified her Class Level. We didn't even know there was a Class Five, so we have no idea what she is. Congrats, girl." He clapped her on the shoulder and went to sit with Juniper.

Just then, a symbol began to form above her head. It took nearly five minutes for it to form and in the meantime, we all took bets on what she was. Most people said Aphrodite, even though with her Class Five ranking that was totally improbable, Annabeth and her siblings said Athena, but I said Ares, given how she had fought on the fly, and Grover said Zeus, since she was totally comfortable in the air itself.

When it finally fully appeared, it was nothing we'd ever seen before. Chrion was just staring quietly, and even Mr. D was paying attention, slightly drawn in by the spectacle she was making.

There was a spindle throwing out a line of thread, a ruler that was measuring the thread, and a giant pair of scissors that was slicing the tip of it off.

"What…what is that?" Mira looked nervous, glancing around at our faces, unsure of what to make of our unsteady silence.

"Spindle, thread, scissors…" Annabeth's mind was reeling, thoughts pin wheeling around in her head. "The Three Fates!"

Everyone looked at her. "I think she's a daughter of The Fates."

There was a sharp crack and a puff of smoke and then there were three women on the top of the table. One was spinning a series of threads through a spindle, the other was measuring and making marks on a floating scroll, and the third just stood there, scissors in hand, ready to snip. I let go of Annabeth and drew my sword, along with the Ares cabin and Nico. They emulated power, and cowed everyone in the room. Chiron backed away a few steps, and Mr. D was more enraptured by the three women then I had ever seen him.

"I would not be so hasty with that sword, young sea prince…There would be certain consequences..." It was the spinner that spoke, with a voice that seemed warm enough, but the veiled shield of threats lay behind the tone of her words. She looked at me as she spun, but never quite met my eyes.

"Who are you?" I slowly lowered Riptide, getting the feel that if they were dangerous, Annabeth and Chrion would have told us so already. Instead, Annabeth was taking mental notes.

"I'm Clotho. This is Lachesis, and that's Atropos. I'm sure you've guessed just what we are by now."

"The Sisters of Fate"

"Very good, sea prince." She offered me a smile that warmed my skin and chilled me to the core. "And it appears that we have some explaining to do…Lachesis?"

"Yes, well, here is the story." Lachesis appeared troubled, hurried, probably since she was the one who made the decisions for everyone's life, even the gods. "We thought that it was unfair that the gods got to have all the children and that we were just known, and feared, as the ones who could kill you if they wanted. So we decided that we should have our own child, for the sake of keeping our legacy alive and giving the demi-gods a valuable weapon. We imbued our essence into the womb of a dying young girl. She gave birth to Mira here, and then died in the natural course of her life. Mira belongs to us. That's what a Class Five is. She's a daughter of Fate."

There was stunned silence. No one could say anything, just stared at The Fates and the girl who was their daughter.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have to go back to work."

They disappeared much in the way they came, with a crack and smoke, leaving us speechless.

"Well. This is certainly different."

"Wait-did they say we gained a valuable weapon?" The whole Ares cabin stirred; they were typically excited to see what she was capable of. There was nothing they loved more than a new weapon. "So, what can you do?"

She shrugged the question off with a half-smile and a tilt of her head. I'm not sure, but I thought I saw her mouth 'Clarisse' to herself as the girl focused on her.

"Where's she going to be staying? It's not like we have a cabin for The Fates." Annabeth, ever the practical one, made sure to sort out basics first.

"We want her!" The Ares cabin shouted with triumph. "If she's a weapon, she deserves to live with _us_!"

"No, _we_ want her! Who helped her clean up? Us!" The Aphrodite girls cheered for their prize, and the boys backed them up.

"I say we get her! Did you _hear_ how she knew her stuff? It's obvious she belongs with us!" Everyone joined in on the action, from Hephaestus to Apollo, Nemesis to Hermes, each staking their claim on the girl with the impossible parents.

"SHUT UP!" Mr. D threw down his cards and glared us all to silence. "Now, Megan here will switch cabins every night until we can find a permanent home for her."

Mira flipped her head to the other side, studying, examining. "You're Dionysius, I presume. The god of wine, madness, parties and ecstasy. What are you doing at a training camp for heroes?" Her voice was soft and lulling, luring us into listening harder; weaving a dreamlike cloth around our ears, making us realize that she knew all of this by his name. " You don't want to be here. All you want it to be on Olympus, with your beloved wife. And it's Mira, by the way."

He tried to keep the amazement out of his eyes, and it worked a little, and he somehow retained his normal arrogance and sarcasm. "Yes, yes whatever. Where would you like to sleep, Miss Fates?"

Mira glanced around at the faces in the room, each a little bit sickeningly hopeful, but I prayed to the gods that she wouldn't choose me. Annabeth would never forgive me. Ever.

Obviously someone was listening, because she settled her eyes on the dark, quiet boy sitting in the corner, who she apparently knew would have the most space. Head once again tilted in a way that made me think that was how she knew things, she zeroed in on the one person, aside from myself, who hadn't been asking for her.

"Nico Di Angelo. I'll sleep in the Hades cabin."

He looked up at her with a small bit of wonder in his eyes, and I realized that they were about the same age. I also realized that he didn't have a girlfriend, and that it was just about time for him to get one. Grover looked at me with a smile I knew from way back when we still attended middle school-it was his mischievous, 'Let's make somethin' _big_ happen!' look, and I missed it dearly.

As everyone filed out of the Big House to go to our respective cabins, Grover and I ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders before he could steal away from us.

"So-what are you going to do?" Grover slung his arm over his shoulder, giving him a look that invited him to dance with the devil and feast on souls.

"Huh?" I swear, for surviving a war he is one of the most naïve people I have ever laid eyes on, even if he has gotten taller and filled out.

"About the hot chick sleeping in your cabin, man!" Grover kept his voice low to avoid being overheard. "You gonna try to get some? Maybe you can make her stay for more." He added a wink to his last sentence, making Nico blush in his fifteen year old simplicity.

"I-I don't really know."

"Come on, bro." Grover grabbed him and steered him towards my cabin, where the only person who would over hear was Tyson. I mean, it's not like me and Grover had suddenly become sex experts because we had girlfriends, but we definitely knew more than he did. I was suddenly looking forward to the talk we were about to force down his throat.

"Come on, cuz." I smiled at Nico, trying to reassure him. "This is gonna be fun."

I think he was praying to Hades to get him out of there.

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><p><strong>Remember to review! :D<strong>


	3. We Get Kidnapped By A Teddy Bear

**Back again! This chapter's sorta long, just because I wanted to fit a lot in and get some character develpoment rolling-plus it was too cute of an idea for me to leave out.**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise, or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Mira's POV<strong>

As the rest of the cabins faltered out of the Big House, disappointed that I didn't choose their cabins for my first night here, I slowed my step, then sped up to catch Annabeth before she could disappear like Grover, Percy and Nico did.

"Hi, uhm Annabeth?"

She whirled around to face me, eyes slate grey in the dim light. I could sense interest, confusion, and just the slightest bit of dislike, but I was dead set on having her as a friend.

"Yeah?"

"Since Grover disappeared and I have no idea about anything around here, could you maybe give me a tour? I don't want to impose or anything, but I'd really rather you show me around then some other people here."

Her gaze softened as she saw insecurity, and rushed in to help like a mother hen.

"Sure. And listen, about what happened with Percy-"

I put my hands up in a defensive gesture. "Nothing happened, I promise you." She looked about ready to open her mouth and say something, but I wanted to get this whole thing cleared up right now. "And I swear on the River Styx that I will never romantically or sexually do anything with him for as long as the two of you are together."

She gaped at me. "You pick up things quick, don't you?"

I laughed a little bit at what I assumed to be the rare sight of a child of Athena confused. "So we're cool now, right?"

Annabeth smiled back at me, and I got only happiness at my promise and a strange sense of relief off of her. "Definitely. Now, there's a lot to learn, and I'm sure that you can't get all of it just by names."

She linked her arm with mine, and I just kept sending more 'You will like me' thoughts out over the icy blue thread that drew from her.

Let me be frank here for a moment.

Percy Jackson is a very attractive boy. He almost has that whole bad boy look going for him, with the shaggy dark hair and the sea green eyes and the fact that he's just a little ditzy, but then he open his mouth and he is just so sweet I think that if I licked him I'd taste sugar. It's half endearing-and half repulsive. His thread is so clean and so perfect, aside from being strengthened by the curse of Achilles, and being dotted by a few encounters with Annabeth that I never plan on looking at. So as I was saying, I wouldn't be able to stand being with him, so making my promise to Annabeth was easy. I really had no want for him, which was obviously something different, because a lot of the other girls here had this sick kind of desire for him painted all over their threads.

"Hello? Earth to Mira?"

I snapped back into reality, and noticed she was holding a sword-it was nicked in just the right places, so I assumed that it was the same sword I had defeated the hydra with. I had grown just the slightest bit attached to it.

"Here. This will be yours for now, until you can persuade one of the Hephaestus boys to make you your own. You want to go try out your skills on a dummy?"

"Nah, I think I want to see the rest of camp first." I smiled at her, and she easily agreed with me. The sword swung from my hand.

We were just walking past the big house when a girl with fire on her head raced over to us.

"Annabeth! I heard that someone's the daughter of The Fates! Where is she? I need to meet her!"

Annabeth sighed. An oozing, distrustful commitment momentarily blackened her thread. "Mira, meet our resident Oracle of Delphi."

"Rachel Dare." She smiled and stuck out her hand. "I guess you're the daughter of The Fates?"

I hesitated to touch her hand but still did; I could almost sense the commotion we were about to cause.

She smiled at me and began to talk, to ask many, many questions, but I didn't hear her. Her thread, which had been such a bright white before, was suddenly coated with a thick green mist. It would be a while before it happened-what it was, I wasn't sure, but I just knew that it would be important when it did.

Bringing myself to concentrate on her fast-thrown words, I answered as best I could. "It's not really like that. I can't see the future, or tell what's happened in other people's pasts. But I see theses threads that extend from inside of people, and I can get a sense of them from that thread. For example, yours is white, very pure and very well-meaning. You're privileged-there are certain dark spots where you've thrown your weight around, times you regret, times you think have tarnished what you want to do, which is help. And there's a bright green mist surrounding the end. Something very big is going to happen, and very soon."

Rachel balked. "Bright green?"

"Yeah…that's what I said, right?" I was confused.

Annabeth's face was white as well. "Her eyes go bright green when she speaks a Prophecy…"

Just then, Rachel's eyes began to glow and the light from her was so intense I had to look away for a moment. When I looked back her mouth had fallen open and a voice that wasn't her own echoed from within her.

"_Doves make the choice to lay with Death_

_Six hearts beat to a final breath_

_To follow the thief in the dead of day_

_Forever the ones who the gods will say_

_A man made of night up against a wall_

_The prison keys returned when the doves fall"_

Rachel shuddered, and the green light faded. Annabeth was recording every word, and those who happened to be outside were staring at us, our odd trio of heads, one blonde, one red, one dark.

"We…we have to go tell Chrion about that, right?" I was stumped by how upset they all were, but surprisingly interested as well.

Rachel shook her head, and smiled at me. "Yeah. I'll go do that. I kind of felt this coming on for a while now; you guys go on and finish your tour!" I could tell that she wanted to ask me more questions about me being what I was, but she obviously had no time as of right now.

Annabeth shook her head as well, and trotted me over to each cabin, showing me all the differences and explaining to me about each god and their children. Most of it I already knew, since Greek Mythology was kind of my thing, but the more personal aspects that they didn't mention in the hundreds-upon-hundreds of books I'd read about it were really interesting.

She told me about the pact of The Big Three, which it turns out was broken anyway. She told me all about Thalia's Pine Tree, and about how she joined the Hunters of Artemis to escape a prophecy that had Olympus' fate resting on its shoulders. She told me all about The Great Prophecy and the Second Titan War, which I could see scarring everyone's threads, and about how Percy saved the world. Her eyes got all moony when she said this, but then she began to tell me about this Hermes kid named Luke, and a storm cloud bristled in her eyes, as if she dared me to call him an enemy after all he sacrificed.

We had just passed the Aphrodite cabin and, amidst all the catcalls, Stacey, the girl who helped me before, walked over with two other girls I found to be twins, Bethany and Danielle White.

"How's camp treating you so far?" Stacey was kind, but the other two girls looked at me with daggers for eyes.

"Awesome! I haven't had to kill anything yet, and I've been asked out like, five times already! It's great here!" Being around her made me want to act like a ditz and only talk about menial love flings, and I gave into that urge.

She laughed, and I couldn't help but think that it was beautiful. "So tell us-why did you choose to sleep with-uhm, sleep _in_-Nico's cabin?" All four pairs of eyes were then sparking with a hint of gossip, even Annabeth's, and I knew quite exactly where they were heading.

Let me tell you something.

I noticed Nico the second I walked into the Big House. He was sitting in a corner, all quiet and what-not, but he had presence, and I got a sense of pure power rolling off of him in waves. It wasn't the same with Percy, who had power in a more goody-two shoes kind of way; Nico had power that wouldn't mind throwing a few switches just to see what would explode. I scanned the room, seeing if anyone had ties to him, but none did, and then I realized that they were afraid of him. That automatically put him even more in my liking. Fear is fun to watch, and none excites more fear than a son of Hades.

Not that their fear of him was what I liked-that was just an added bonus. He was easily five inches taller than I, and I could see a wiry kind of strength about him. He wasn't small and skinny, though Annabeth still saw him that way, so I assumed he had grown up recently. _I_ certainly wasn't complaining. After I had announced that I was going to be staying with him, he looked at me with eyes that pooled like molten iron, and I couldn't help but get lost in their depths.

I had a feeling that we were going to have a _lot_ of fun together.

But my mouth had to say otherwise. "Well, I kinda guessed that everyone else had like, no room but he looked like he was the only one, right? So he'd have room and I was just _totally_ overwhelmed by everyone being so pushy!"

"I totally get that!" She beamed at me, but Bethany and Danielle glared out of the corner of their eyes, dislike seething in wires along their interconnected threads. "Stay with us tomorrow night?"

"Definitely!" She gave me a quick, hard hug and trotted off with a wave and the thick smell of perfume, her evil minions following behind her.

"You just get along with everyone, don't you?" She could tell that I was telling a little bit of a fib about Nico. The connection I had to people with their threads occasionally worked both ways, and Annabeth was one of the smarted people I had used the connection on, so she would get it pretty soon.

"I try!" I gave her a brilliant smile, and then she decided that we should go visit Poseidon's cabin and see if that's where Percy and the rest of them had disappeared to.

Annabeth put a finger to her lips as we approached the cabin's steps; we were obviously trying to be discreet, and either listen in on their conversation or scare the Styx out of them. We flashed each other wicked smiles-we had known each other barely three hours, but through the link I'd made with her thread, we already knew how to play to the other's strengths.

And so we snuck up on the boys and listened to them speak.

It appeared that Percy and Grover were giving Nico advice on something of a very pressing matter.

"Just be funny!"

"Or stupid, like Perce. That works _pretty_ well for him!"

A soft flop made it sound like Percy had thrown a pillow at Grover's head.

"Grover eating pillow!" Tyson's voice boomed through the cabin walls.

"Dude that's my _pillow_, you nasty goat!"

Grover mumbled something back, his voice muffled through the tearing and gulping as he shoved the pillow in his mouth. "Shounla phrow za illo ima phirsh plashe."

Annabeth and I giggled silently to ourselves, stupidly ecstatic over this secret peek into what the guys did when we weren't around. Not that I'd around here for long enough to know them, but I'd gotten a pretty good feel for most of the people I'd encountered.

"Look Nico-she obviously had a reason for what she did. You don't have to listen to us if you don't want to. Just go for it! Do what feels right."

We all heard Nico nearly choke on his laughter. "Okay. I'll do what feels right." I could sense the sarcasm in his voice.

I could feel Percy and Grover smile, happy they had made a breakthrough. "Yes! And what's that?"

"Getting away from the three of _you_."

Annabeth and I panicked, not having enough time to get out of there before Nico opened the door and nearly ran right into us.

"Uhh…" We said it simultaneously, glancing at each other, knowing we got caught.

Nico backed up a step with a deceptively innocent face, the shyness I'd seen in him before near evaporated after his little chat with the boys and, looking down at us both, he called over his shoulder to Percy and Grover.

"Guys….I think we've got some eavesdroppers…"

At the tone in his voice they came and flanked him, foe-angry looks carved onto their faces. Just then, Juniper turned the corner and peered out from behind the cabin's walls, proving that we hadn't been the only ones listening in. The three of us exchanged scared looks-I'd never gotten caught spying by two demi-gods, a satyr and a Cyclops before. How was I to know if they were going to skin us alive or not?

"Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?" Percy narrowed his eyes at Annabeth, Grover scraped his hoof along the porch like a bull ready to charge, and Nico looked at me with a fire in his eyes and growled.

"Get 'em."

Without a second to spare, we turned and ran, scattering like geese in a mad panic. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Grover run to grab Juniper and grab her arm before she could disappear into a tree, twirling her into his arms as he scolded her, but I knew it was fake. The love decorating his thread was so impossible it made me laugh, infected with their combined ecstasy.

I couldn't give myself much time to think though, as Nico was catching up, so I threw on the speed and pumped my legs faster, using a convenient root to launch myself over the deck of Zeus's cabin. I felt a spark course through my legs as I dived over the porch, and knew that if I touched it I would surely be electrocuted to death. I heard a shrill scream from Annabeth and threw my head around to see her being swung into the air by Percy, who had apparently caught up to her by whacking her on the ankles with Riptide's hilt. I thought that was cheating, but I guessed we really didn't have much of a choice in it.

All this happened in less than half a second. With my head still turned I noticed that Nico wasn't behind me anymore. Thinking I'd won and he'd given up but not really believing it, I ran into the shadow of Hera's cabin and found that I'd thrown myself right into his arms. We fell, sprawling backwards onto the damp ground, and I realized at the same time he did that we were in a ridiculously awkward position. His face got just the slightest bit red, and I giggled like an Aphrodite girl.

"Shadow traveling. Neat trick."

At that I bounced up to my feet and darted away before he could grab me, right to the center of the cabin-square, where Percy was still struggling with Annabeth; Grover having neatly gotten Juniper into the cabin with less time than it took me to run to Zeus's cabin. I was in the clear with surprise on my side, but then Percy stuck out his foot just as I passed, making me stop to prevent myself from completely falling on my face. As I was trying to get back up, I heard a slap of hands as Percy high-fived Nico, and realized I was screwed. I made one last desperate attempt to get away that was practically a crawl, but Nico scooped me up in his arms and held on tight even as I squirmed and protested.

Once I realized that my struggles were getting me nowhere, I resorted to sulking silently as he carried me back to Percy's cabin. Percy pulled up next to us, holding Annabeth in a similar manner. Our feet were touching, and I got an idea that I spelled out for Annabeth with my eyes. Counting silently in our heads, we kicked each other's carriers hard in the side. They yelped in pain and loosed their grip, so we leapt out of their arms.

"Admirable effort." Nico grabbed me around the waste and slung me over his shoulder. "But not quite fast enough."

What I found so amusing was that his cheeks were bright red. It was infinitely obvious that he found this whole predicament so awkward, and that he was only doing it to not be ridiculed by the other guys.

I found it so amusing I actually laughed out laughed, which made the crowd we had amassed laugh at Annabeth and me.

"Hey-no laughing!"

I could tell he was faking it.

They dropped us next to Juniper, whose hands had been tied together.

"Nico's friend pretty!" Tyson, excited to meet a new person, startled another laugh out of me.

"No laughing!"

"Oh, shut it, teddy bear." Nico pulled back from me. "Thank you, Tyson. And may I say that you have the prettiest eye I have ever seen."

"Did you just call me a teddy bear?"

"Nico's friend say I'm pretty!" Tyson jumped out of the cabin with an excited little hop. I doubt he'd gotten a compliment from a girl, ever. "I tell Matte! I tell everyone!"

"Now he's never going to leave you alone."

"She called me a teddy bear."

"I know; He just seems like such a sweet kid."

"Is anyone listening? _She called me a teddy bear!_"

Grover guffawed at him, a bleating surprising sound that scared me halfway to Hades.

"She can't be serious. You're not serious, are you?"

"Untie me and I'll tell."

"Never."

"Then you'll never know."

He was about to reply, but Percy cut him off with a slap to the chest. "Shut up. We need to decide what to do with the spies."

They all crossed their arms at the exact same time, and the three of us-Annabeth, Juniper and I-exploded into a mixture of giggling, gasping and torrents of maniacal laughter. Somehow, we had managed to get ourselves captured by a water-brained nineteen year old, another nineteen year old who was part _goat,_ and a fifteen year old who talked big game but couldn't touch a girl without his face lighting on fire, and we thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

We were still laughing our asses off when Percy yelled. "Tickle them!"

That shut us up for about half a second, and then we were screaming for help so loud we could have woken the dead.

We were rolling around on the floor, kicking at the air, helpless as they tickled us.

"_HELPPPP! SOMEBODY HELP UUUUSSS!"_

We were still like that when Chiron kicked the doors open, bow drawn, followed by the entire Ares cabin, swords at the ready. Everyone stopped short, awkwardly not looking at each other until Chiron sighed at us and lowered his bow.

"Really?" Clarisse and the Ares kids just scowled at us and walked away dejectedly, as if they were hoping for a fight, which they probably were.

Chiron looked disappointed. "Boys, let them go. What's going on here?"

"They _attacked us_-"

"They were_ spying_-"

"_Hunted us down!_"

"Though they were assassinating-"

"Tickled to-"

Chrion raised a hand and we all shut up.

"Percy, Nico, Grover, you appear to be the culprits here-kitchen duty for a week."

"What? But-"

Just then Mr. D appeared at Chiron's right shoulder, and we saw smoke in the distance.

"The Stoll brothers have blown something up, and the campers are expecting someone to do something."

Chrion sighed again and cantered away to deal with the new destruction. Mr. D turned to us. We all stilled. No one liked him, but he was still a god, and so he had to be feared. "Nathan, Pierre, Gabe- I believe you need to go find gloves in your size."

As soon as he disappeared, and they untied us, we gave high fives all around and laughed at them.

Grumbling, they walked away to do exactly as told.

"Well, I've got to go. Nice meeting you, Mira!" Juniper puffed out of there and returned to her tree, I assume, while Annabeth and I walked to the arena. The Ares kids had taken over again, but we grabbed a quiet corner for ourselves. We sparred for a while, Annabeth completely kicking my ass, when the dinner horn blew.

I sat with Athena's kids, since Annabeth was my newly minted friend, and it was a very mentally stimulating dinner. We talked about all sorts of things, and this was even before we donated some food to the gods. I paused then, at the very back of the line, and scraped a good half of my meal into the fire. "For…the gods, I guess." I know that most times, when a demi-god sacrificed food to the gods, a certain smell was supposed to appear, but there was no smell, mostly because the food didn't burn.

"I guess I have to sacrifice to a certain god…" I thought for a second, thinking about who would be the most logical. "Oh well, duh. That was a stupid question to ask myself. For Athena."

Then the food burnt, smelling like candle wax and book papers. Smiling to myself, I realized that I could sacrifice to everyone, and I decided that I would.

If only I knew what trouble that would get me into.

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	4. Mira Forgets To Wear Pants

**So here's the next chapter and thanks to everyone who's been reading! I need more reviews though! I can't tell what you guys think of it if you won't tell me anything! So tell me what you think, give constructive criticism, give unconstructive criticism, anything that you think will help me write the story better. Thanks! XD**

**Diclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Nico's POV<strong>

There is no worse punishment at camp than washing the dishes with the harpies.

They scream at you if you miss a drop of anything, and they smell worse than death-trust me, I'd know. Not to mention that we were scrubbing plates with _lava_. It's torture, torture worse than being trapped in Hades for an eternity.

"I can't believe they sold us out like that. Aren't women supposed to be nice when they're happy?" Grover was still fuming over how the girls had gotten away with it, since they were technically the instigators in this weird situation.

"Well, we did chase them down, tie them up, and then tickle them half to death. I think they have a pretty good reason." As I spoke I couldn't help but snicker at Percy, not even paying attention and still over the moon about Annabeth. They'd been together for going on three years, and he was still in that puppy-love stage.

"Percy, hate to kill your mood, but you've been washing the same plate for about fifteen minutes. Stop thinking, just scrub and we can be out of here faster." He didn't respond, so I kicked him in the back of the knee.

He buckled with an exaggerated '_oomph!'_ and nearly landed face first into the tub of plates and lava. Sputtering in a mixture of pain and surprise, he turned around and punched me in the arm.

"You-gods, you could have _killed_ me!"

"No I couldn't of, you're indestructible."

Grover was laughing his furry legs off, and I had to laugh along with him. He hobbled over to Percy and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's alright, man. We'd get some Apollo kids to fix your pretty face!" With that he bolted, barely missing Percy's punch, and dropped his gloves in the bin by the door. "See ya', suckers! I'm going to hang out with Juniper before curfew. Have fun!"

"What?"

"How's he leaving?"

"Look at his tub! It's empty!"

"That lucky bastard, he was done!"

We grumbled for twenty more minutes as we washed, trying to figure out how he had finished so quickly. Even though I had almost burned his face off, Percy was on my side once Grover abandoned us to the harpies and the dishes. By the time we were done, I had some burns on my thighs where Percy had forgotten that I wasn't quite as invincible as he was and thrown a handful of lava at me. I swore to get him back somehow, when I could figure out where his Achilles spot was and then poke him in it.

We were just passing his cabin and he was about to leave for the night when he suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and looked at me in a way that made me wonder if he was going to kill me.

"About Mira?"

I sighed. This again. Just because the gorgeous new girl, who's somehow the daughter of The Fates and so we don't know what she can do, chose to sleep with me-uh, I mean in my cabin-Percy and Grover have been trying to give me advice and pep-talks. So maybe I had no experience with girls. So maybe our little stunt with the tickling today was the farthest I've ever gone. Somaybe I blushed like crazy whenever even a pseudo-attractive girl looked at me. So maybe I was only fifteen and she was sixteen and she was certainly more experienced then me in all sense of the word.

So _maybe_ I needed help.

But it's not like I was going to admit that.

"Percy, listen to me." I grabbed him by the shoulders too, and we stood like that while we talked, which was probably the weirdest thing I've ever done. "I will be _fine_. She's_ just_ a girl. It's one night, and then she's gone. I'm really not expecting anything to come from it."

"One can always hope though, right?" Damn. Did he know what I was thinking?

"Well…Yeah, one can always hope."

He slapped my face and walked into his cabin.

"What was that for?"

"Good luck!"

I really hate him sometimes.

I trailed the row of cabins, not really paying attention to the different cabins, just walking along, thinking my own thoughts. I didn't realize the Stolls were trying to get my attention until they threw a tiny golden ball at me.

"Wha-?"

Snickering at my confusion, Connor asked me if they could borrow a skeleton for…something.

"For what?"

He and his brother just looked at each other evilly. "Oh, nothing."

Realizing they weren't going to give in until I gave them what they wanted, I summoned up a skeleton and told it to do whatever the Stolls wanted until they told him (her?) to disappear.

"We owe you, Nico!"

"Yeah, whatever." I really wasn't that close with Travis and Connor, but they seemed like pretty cool guys, on the odd occasion.

Wandering into my cabin, it took me a moment to process what I was seeing. Mira was already inside, which for some reason I wasn't expecting, and she was reaching for something on a top bunk. (I really don't understand why they have so many bunks in there. It's not like I had fifteen secret siblings hidden in my closet.) She was wearing this big, old t-shirt, and what appeared to be a pair of really tiny, hot pink shorts. It took me about two more seconds to realize that they were lacy, low cut, and shaped like a bikini bottom.

Oh dear gods.

She turned and noticed me at the same time I was trying to back quietly out of the room.

"Oh, hi Nico!" She gave me a grin, then she must have realized the same thing I did, and her face fell at fifty thousand miles an hour.

"Oh, _fuck_." Her face turned bright red as she spoke, and tried to pull the shirt down.

"Uhm, I'll just-I, uh-well-I gotta go!"

And with that beautifully intelligent sentence, I ran for Percy's cabin.

Midway there, I stopped. He would berate me forever, reminding me of how I said everything would be fine, and it was just a simple mistake, right? I had to go back. So I took a deep breath, pretended not to notice the eyes in the windows of the Hermes's cabin, and walked back to the steps of my cabin. No doubt my freak out would be the talk of the camp by the next morning.

Steeling myself, I opened the door very, very slowly to find her now fully dressed, a pair of baggy sweatpants covering…well, everything I'd just seen.

She was still trying to get whatever was on the top of the bunk when I came in, but as soon as she saw me up she stopped and looked at me with the most nervous expression I'd ever seen on someone other than myself.

"I'm really sorry about that I swear to the _gods_ I wasn't trying to be provocative or anything like that I was just spacing out and I would never _ever_ do something this idiotic on the first day I've known somebody cuz normally I do all the idiotic things after I've known them for a while and-"

I cut her off by putting a finger to my lips. She had been talking at the speed of light and I could barely understand what she was saying, but I guessed it was an apology from the way she was wringing her hands and looking up at me with eyes wider than twin shields. Actually, she was looking at me kind of funny, as if-

Oh. I'd just been watching her for a good ten seconds without saying anything, which was probably kind of creepy.

"So, ah, what are you looking for up there, anyway?"

"Oh I was going through this kit that Annabeth and her siblings put together for me when the knife got stuck on something else. I kept pulling on it, but I pulled to hard and it flew up there." She bit her lip, and glared at the offending bunk. "Why are the bunks so tall, anyway? And why aren't there any ladders?"

I laughed at her a little bit, then walked over with only a little hesitation and looked around for the knife. "Well, they're tall because I'm tall, and there're no ladders because I'm the only one who lives here." I yanked the knife out of where it had embedded itself sideways in the headboard of the bunk, and handed it to her.

I attempted to smile at her, and I guess it worked a little bit, because she smiled back. Just then I realized that she actually wasn't that short, and she probably could have climbed onto the top of the bunk to get her own knife. At the time, I only thought it was weird.

"So, where should I be sleeping? I mean, I know there's an excess of bunks, but I don't want to accidentally take one that'd be wrong…"

"Oh, uhm, any where's fine. Mine's just that one, in the middleish area, so just…anywhere."

She smiled at me a little shyly, then picked up her stuff and plopped it on the bed right across from mine.

"Do you know where I can get real sheets from? 'Cuz this sleeping bag is…different." I laughed at the face she made, and laughed more when she glared at me.

"Talk to one of the kids in the Hermes's cabin. Actually, talk specifically to the Stolls. They can get you just about anything. If they ask for payment, say it's repaying a favor from me."

She smiled at me, and slid into her sleeping bag. "Night, Nico." I guess hadn't realized how late it was.

I was still standing when she closed her eyes and seemed to fall immediately asleep. "Goodnight, Mira."

She woke the next morning with a whimpered scream. It moaned through her lips like the bloody breath of the wounded, and it scared the Styx out of me. She sounded like she was dying, as if someone had cut off her vocal chords and stabbed her, leaving her silent and bloody. I stumbled over to her, still half-asleep, and touched her shoulder.

"Mir-"

I wasn't able to finish, because then she had her hands around on my shoulders and was shaking me, eyes wide open, shining with a devilish glint in the moonlight that entered through the windows.

"Why did you let them hurt me? Why didn't you stop them? You could have stopped them! _ You could have stopped them!_" Her voice was rough, horrible, sandpaper being scratched along the walls of a tomb, and she wouldn't stop shaking me.

Then her eyes pooled with tears and her voice became weak, the voice of a child who has lost a favorite toy. "Why did you leave me, Da-" At this her voice gave out, and she blinked a few times, eyes losing their tears and their bloodthirsty roundness to confusion and morning doubt.

"Nico? What…what happened?"

I tried to give her a comforting smile, and spoke with my softest voice. "Well…you started this odd sort of screaming, and then you grabbed me and accused me of letting them hurt you, and then leaving you."

"Oh." Her eyes were downcast, suddenly, vibrantly silent of emotions "Oh, I'm sorry. I just have these…nightmares sometimes. I'm sorry for waking you."

"It's almost time to get up, anyway. Do you…do you maybe want to talk about it?"

"No." It was a word like a blade, and it cut me in the same way. "Oh, Nico, I'm sorry. Don't look like that; I can't stand to see those pretty little eyes of yours so down. Like, I said, I just get nightmares."

It sounded like a lot more than just nightmares to me, but I was more focused on the middle sentence then the last.

Pretty eyes? Did she mean that?

I guess she realized what she said, too, because she suddenly got out of her sleeping bag with a flush in her cheeks. "Well, I need to get dressed so..."

"Right. Uhm, I'll leave."

She smiled at me as I grabbed my clothes, unsuccessfully trying to hide the pale blue boxers with the pink hearts in the mess of black.

They was a gift from Demeter. Please don't ask.

I ran all the way to Percy's cabin, where he was still asleep.

"Wake up, Seaweed Brain!"

"…Annabeth…?"

"No. Nico. Now unless you want some serious ass-whooping, get up, get dressed, and come with me to breakfast."

He was dressed in record time.

By the time we got there, Mira was already sitting at my table, alone, chewing contentedly on the end of a straw.

"Looks like someone's waiting for you." Percy smirked and shoved me gently towards the half empty table.

"Hey!" She laughed at my falsely peppy voice, and invited me to sit.

I noticed that she had half a bowl full of Cheerio's and a glass of milk, and that there was no milk in the Cheerio's. I was about to ask her about it when Chrion stood up to make an announcement.

I looked around in amazement, noticing for the first time that everyone was there. Apparently we had slept late. We probably would have missed breakfast if Mira hadn't had her nightmare.

"As you all know, Mira is out newest camp member, and we don't have a cabin for her. As there is no more room in the central area, we will need to build one in a different place. Does anyone have any ideas?"

In my head I was thinking that she could just stay with me for the rest of her life, and I guess I got a little carried away, because soon Mira was poking me with the end of her spoon, looking concerned.

"Earth to Nico…what were you thinking about so intensely?" She was laughing at me, I could tell, but there was no way I could tell her what had just been going through my mind. She would probably smite me with her mystical Fate powers or something.

"Uh…nothing. What did Chiron say?"

"Oh, just that Juniper found this hidden clearing that's really hard to get to while she was with Grover," The look on her face was enough to remind me of my recent daydreams and I knew my cheeks were on fire. "And she's letting us build my cabin in it. And Chiron said something about how every cabin is going to add something of their own to it, since The Fates symbolize everyone, and so The Fates' cabin should be a culmination of all the cabins working together."

We talked for a while, and then it was time to start our classes for the day.

"What are you doing?" I noticed that Mira seemed to be following me.

"Oh, I've decided that whoever's cabin I stayed in the previous night is the one I'll stick with for that whole day. So you're stuck with me until tonight!"

She trotted off to the arena, where we would be sparring, and I could only think about how much I would miss her when she was gone.

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	5. We Go Illegal Night Swimming

**Hello there :D This chapter's shorter, and is sort of Percabeth, and sort of rambling, but it's still a chapter, right? A more substantial one is vcoming up soon, I promise :) Anyway, I still need to know what you think in the reveiws! Otherwise I can't change what you don't like, or continue with what you DO like, or even keep updating! So reviews will be loved and responded to :D**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise, or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Annabeth's POV<strong>

The Stoll brothers were late to our impromptu lunch meeting. I had sent out Juniper to tell everyone I needed to meet us at the beach, and so far we had achieved nothing. The meeting consisted of Percy, Nico, Mira, Juniper, Grover, Travis, Connor, Katie, Rachel and I, and we were supposed to be trying to decipher the new Prophecy. Since nothing bad had happened in the three years since Kronos tried to destroy Olympus, Chiron had decided to let us try to figure it out in our spare time.

Juniper and Grover spent all their staring into each other's eyes and flirting near-silently, Nico and Mira were playing BS, Rachel was doing some Oracle meditating thing, and Percy was being…distracting.

At the moment the Stolls and Katie arrived, he was massaging my shoulders and softly kissing my ear.

"Stop it, Seaweed Brain…I have a meeting to run." I shoved him off and tried to control the blush in my cheeks.

"Okay guys-everyone come over here. We've got some important stuff to talk about."

"_Ha!_ Peanut Butter!"

When we looked at them, Nico was scowling at the ground and putting down three jacks. At the silence, they looked over at us sheepishly and apologized.

"Are you going to join us?"

"It's a beach." Nico rolled his eyes.

"We're not gonna test out luck. Two queens."

"Peanut butter. We'll multitask and listen from here. One king."

I sighed, and left them and their weird, tentative friendship to the cards.

"You all know what we're here for, right?"

"Beer?"

"Katie?" She blushed, and I realized her shirt was on backwards.

"Beach?"

"Words of wisdom?"

"Enchiladas?"

"Prophecy, you numbskulls."

"Right…"

Then, aside from Nico and Mira, everyone mostly stopped their fooling around and paid attention. I had Rachel repeat the Prophecy, and then we broke it down line by line.

"Okay-Doves make the choice to lay with Death."

"Death is obviously Nico or his daddy." The ground rumbled, and Connor paled a little bit, but he continued. "Congrats, bro! You're getting laid!"

Startled, Nico looked up at us, and we all saw him glance at Mira, who was sorting her cards, glance, back at us, then look down, staring intently at the cards in his hand. Connor smirked as was about to saw something, but Travis whacked him upside the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Or it could mean dying literally. Like when you die you're lying with Death, right?"

We all stared at him.

"That was oddly philosophical of you, Perce."

He appeared offended by our comment. "What? I can be deep sometimes."

Rachel rolled her eyes at him which, even though she was the virgin Oracle of Delphi, I still didn't like. Even if we had been going out for three years, I was still a little nervous-possessive about him.

"So our first line roughly translates to doves either die, or sleep with Nico or Lord Hades. Agreed?"

We nodded, and she wrote it down on a notebook.

"But what's 'doves' mean? It can't mean a literal flock of doves…can it?" The first time Katie spoke brought up an important issue.

"Well, it's possible, but it's more likely that it means people who look or act like doves."

"Okay. Next! Six hearts beat to a final breath."

"Six people are going, when the time comes." Point out the obvious, Grover.

"Beat to a final breath? Move as one of them dies?"

"Final doesn't sound so good…"

"Maybe final as in last of its kind? Maybe they're moving to find an almost extinct creature!"

"Like Briareus?"

"No, I don't think he has anything to do with it..."

"_BULLSHIT!"_

At the same time, we turned to look at Mira and Nico. Mira was taking a giant stack of cards and glaring at Nico with a stare that looked like she was about to burn holes in his skin. He was cackling at her, literally having to hold his sides to keep himself from falling apart.

"You-are-"His words were intercepted by laughs "_such_-a-bad-liar!"

We decided just to leave them like that.

"Okay-Six people either keep going as they die, or six people try to find an almost extinct creature. Next?"

We went on like this for a good half an hour, going back and debating, but by the end we were all playing cards. Chrion came for us and we hid the cards quickly-we weren't really supposed to have them.

"What have you figured out?" I stepped forward with Rachel's notebook.

"Well, some parts we're not exactly sure about, but we think we understood most of it."

He nodded. "Let me hear it."

I swallowed in anticipation, and started, feeling nine pairs of eyes on my back. "Doves-that's one of the parts we don't understand-either die, or sleep with Nico or Lord Hades. Six people either move as they die, or are trying to find a nearly extinct creature. They follow someone or something that stole something of great importance, but 'in the dead of day' we don't quite get either. We thought maybe during an eclipse, where it's dark in the day, but those are few and far between."

He nodded again, urging me to continue. "Certain people will become immortal when the gods decide it. The people were probably some of the six on the quest. A man made of night-we think this, too, means either Nico or Lord Hades, is going to be stuck in a very difficult position. And the thief will return what it stole when doves fall. We're guessing that means when this mysterious 'doves' dies."

"Very good. I'll take that, and you have places to be, I'm guessing."

"We'll finish this later…" Nico and Mira kept their cards with them, and the stack went with Mira.

I was going to be teaching the younger kids Ancient Greek, and Mira would be in the class, since she was new. Not surprisingly, she caught on pretty quickly. She was already translating simple sentences, and was forming her own out of some very toned-down words.

In the past three years since Percy made the gods agree to claim their children, around fifteen younger kids had shown up. Younger as in _really_ young, so young they weren't even really children yet, so we set up a daycare program and had built a special house, attached to the Big House, to take care of them. Once they turned twelve, they would join the regular cabins.

Percy caught up to me after class, covered in sweat and yet without a nick on him. I guess there really are some perks to being pretty much invincible.

"Ares cabin…they have some serious anger problems."

I laughed at him, and saw the sparkle in his beautiful eyes, then blushed just realizing what I thought.

"Hey, so I was wondering…the beach tonight? We could have a campfire, maybe go swimming…"

"And how do you plan on not getting eaten by harpies?"

He gave me a knowing smile. "I have a way."

"There is no scenario I can see where you can keep the harpies away from us."

"Well…let's just say I don't plan on us being on land for long enough for them to catch us."

At that he pulled me into his arms and kissed me, shyly at first, but knowing that's what it would take to make me agree. Let's just say that he had gotten a lot less insecure about our being together and his feelings and all that stuff.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I trained, I taught, I ate, I sacrificed a portion of my food to Athena-all in all it was pretty normal Tuesday. Then, when we were walking back from dinner, Percy snuck up behind me, placed my invisibility cap on my head, and steered me to the beach.

Once we were finally out of everyone's earshot, I asked him how he had gotten the cap.

"I had Connor steal it for me."

"How long have you been planning this?"

"Yesterday."

I shoved him, and he swiped the cap from my head and kissed me again. It was sweet and playful, both his hands on my waist, and then he picked me up and ran into the water.

"I guess we're vetoing the fire?"

"This was my plan all along!"

Sitting on the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by a bubble of air, we talked and fooled around for a little bit, and then a pair of hippocampi came up to us and wanted to play, so Percy brought us to the surface and we rode them out into the water. We raced from one invisible marker to the next, and I won most of them, even though he had the advantage, being a son of Poseidon and all that.

An hour later, we were back on the bottom of the sea, but this time there wasn't much talking going on. Even though our first underwater kiss was pretty amazing, this one was good enough to rival it.

At the very last second, when we were just about to reach the surface of the water, the bubble popped, soaking me completely.

"Ahh!" I sputtered above the waves, freaked out by the complete, utter wetness. I heard a dim laugh to my right, and then we were moving through the water faster than ever.

When we got to shore, Percy was cracking up, watching me standing there sopping wet and freezing.

"You-S-S-Seaweed B-Brain!"

"Don't worry; I know how to fix this." He wrapped his arms around me, and the water started rolling off of me. "We need to get you out of those clothes, and then…" He lowered his lips to mine for a salty, swift kiss. "We need to get you warmed up."

I couldn't help but giggle, and then we were racing over the sand, chasing each other to Percy's cabin, where I would wake the next morning, much to the chagrin of my fellow cabin mates.

But I wasn't thinking about the trouble we would be in later. At the moment, all I was thinking was _Percy_.

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	6. I Get Lectured By A Pony

**This is another shorted chapter, but it's necessary because it leads up to the Big Party that makes everything go haywire! Again-I need you're reviews to make it better and know how to update XD Thanks to annabethlover175 and alexandrirulzforeva for being so supportive and for reviewing! :D**

**Disclaimer- I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Apollo's POV<strong>

I needed to go see her. I know that might sound weird stalker-y, but I definitely knew her from someplace, and I needed to know where I knew her from. Zeus told me that I couldn't go see her until she sacrificed something to me when they ate at that camp, and I thought I was going to have to wait forever. Yeah, I was hot, and awesome, but I thought she was just going to sacrifice to the major gods, like Zeus and Poseidon and Hades.

So when she finally sacrificed to me the Thursday after she got there, I was psyched. Maybe she remembered me? I hope, cuz I didn't really remember her. Whatever.

That night, after she _finally_ sent me some food, I decided to visit (Now that I think of it, what took her so long? She got there Monday, so I should've been the first person she sacrificed food to.). They were in the middle of dinner, and the sun was just about to go down, so I could drop by for a visit without going off my course.

I heard a yell of "Don't watch!" when I parked. Man, I loved this car. No one could look at it unless it wasn't moving, which means no one could ever steal it!

I saw the murmurs pass from mouth to mouth as I got out of the car and walked through the tables. It was great, hearing the affect I had on the females of the camp.

"Chiron!" I gave him a slap on the back when I got up to him, and he grimaced a little at me. So he didn't like me all that much. That's cool. His loss. "I'm here to see her."

"Rachel's right there, as always."

"Not _her_. The new girl. The daughter of The Fates."

Chiron's face darkened, almost as if he could tell what I was thinking. "She's in the bathroom right now." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And if this has anything to do with the Prophecy she was given, you know that you can't-"

"Aiden?"

Aiden. I had probably gone by that name once.

I turned around and saw her standing there with her jaw dropped, and my daughter Eliza next to her. Where did I know her from? Where did I know her from?

Then it hit me.

"Brielle?"

Then, all Hades broke loose. Brielle and I, we weren't paying any attention. We walked towards each other, silent, and when we finally met up, she poked me. Then she poked me again. She narrowed her eyes at me, and we started to listen to the voices around us.

"Who's Aiden?"

"Who's _Brielle?_"

"How does she know Apollo?"

"I am loving this taco…"

"Enough!" Chiron raised his voice and everyone, thankfully, shut up. "Apollo…how do you know Mira?"

"Mira? This is Brielle."

"Wait." She looked at me. "Apollo as in, the _god_ Apollo?"

"That's right, sweetheart."

"So you lied to me." Normally I would have smote someone who accused me like that, but she looked adorable when she was angry.

"If I had told you who I was, you would have thought I was crazy. Plus, I'm not the only one who's been lying." Now she was ashamed, glancing at her feet every now and then.

"You told me your name was Brielle Agapi." I took a step closer to her and took her chin in my hand. "You also said you were eighteen. Why'd you do that?"

"Because it was an over-eighteen club and I didn't want to get kicked out."

"And you couldn't resist making yourself legal age for the awesome, gorgeous man who sat next to you?"

"No, I couldn't."

She ripped her face out of my hand, looking _very_ angry, but I could tell she still thought of me as the man at the club.

"Apollo." Chiron had walked over to us, intent on protecting his innocent camper. (Innocent. Right…) "Care to explain what this is all about?"

I gave him a blinding smile. "Hold on…I feel a haiku coming up." Everyone groaned from some reason as I cleared my thought.

"_We met at a club_

_She was attracted to me_

_We hooked up last month"_

I gave everyone a huge smile in the second on silence.

Then everything _really_ went to Hades.

Chiron was flabbergasted, my children-who she had been staying with-got completely grossed out, the rest of the camp was practically rioting in their gossip, Mr. D was, well, doing nothing, Brielle, who was actually Mira, kept looking at the only child of Hades there, and I stood in my spot, looking around at the turmoil.

It was a pretty awesome haiku, wasn't it?

When Chiron finally got his breath back, he spoke. "The two of you-in the Big House, please."

I followed him joyfully, Brielle not so much. When we got there, I plopped down on a fluffy chair, and waited for whatever he was going to say.

"Now, we can't change what's happened in the past, no matter how wrong it may be, and both of you are at fault here. Just promise me that it will never happen again, yes?"

We both promised-but not on the River Styx. I liked that. It gave us more opportunities.

"I'm going to go settle down the campers. In five minutes I want the two of you to have talked over everything, and be back outside."

"Of course, Chiron." He left, and I turned to Brielle. "I was just lectured by a pony. That's a new one."

She put her head in her hands. "I can't believe I hooked up with a god."

"It's alright, it's alright. It was good though, wasn't it?" She glared at me through her laced fingers. "Okay, I'm sorry. Let me make it up to you."

I put my hand on her shoulder and she stood, shaking me off. She was a lot shorter than me, but she glared with a fire that almost rivaled the one of my car. "This better be good, because you _so_ owe me."

"You're adorable. You're completely adorable when you're angry." She punched me in the shoulder. It was amazing how she didn't even act like I was a god. She acted like I was just another boy to her. Interesting. I liked that. Normally women cower when they find out I'm a god. "I'm throwing a party tomorrow night. You can come. Bring some friends."

She crossed her arms and a thoughtful look crossed her face. It was devious, plotting-it almost reminded me of Hermes in a way I didn't want to think about. "On one condition."

"Anything, sweetheart."

"All the campers over the age of fourteen come to. Let them meet their parents and have some fun for once. All we do here is train." Her gaze was ice now, daring me to defy her and making me want to her in to her. Also interesting. I've never wanted so badly to do something for a woman. I normally only want to do something _to_ a woman.

"Ha, that's a pretty big request. But, as you said, I owe you. So invite who you want." I leaned in and pecked her on the cheek. "We can co-host." She pushed me away with a half-smirk half-grimace and walked out the door.

Oh, I love women.

She went and sat back with my kids, and I went to my car. Three boys around the age of ten were admiring it.

"Away from the car, kids."

They ran, frightened.

"Wait-you, scrawny, blonde hair, son of Hermes, right? Come here."

The boy I'd picked on walked hesitantly to me.

"What's her name?"

"Who?"

"The daughter of the Fates."

"Mira Peristeri, sir."

"Good. Now go."

I looked over my shoulder as I took off, and saw her singing an old song with my children. I guess I hadn't soiled her reputation too much.

Doesn't matter. I've got a party to plan, and an impossible half-blood woman to please.

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	7. The Stolls And I Make A Plan

**Hello again! So this is another one of the longer chapters, because there was just so much I needed to fit in. The rest of what was supposed to be here might be in the next chapter, but I've got orientation tommorow so it might be a little slow in getting up. If you want to see what the girls' dresses looked like in real life, the links are on my profile page!**

**I'm debating wether to make a one-shot of Mira and Apollo's night at the club. If you have an opinion on the matter, tell me about it in a review! Thanks again :D**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Mira's POV<strong>

There was so much to do, so many people to talk to, so many illegal items that needed to be obtained, and I had so little time, so I decided to gather up some help, and call upon the three best resources I had-Connor and Travis Stoll, and Matthey Barra. The later was the 'Mattey' that Tyson had run to talk to the first time we'd met. He was a son of Hephaestus, but I'd swear he had a little Hermes in him the way he always helped the Stolls with any and all of their plans and pranks.

So as we were leaving dinner the night I re-met Apollo, I grabbed the three of them and yanked them into the shadows.

"Foursome?"

"Gods, Connor-is that all you ever think about?

"Pshh, no…"

"He's lying."

"Guys! Listen!"

They turned their attention to me.

"I need your help with…something."

The glint in their eyes was perfectly mischievous.

For the next half an hour we were all whispers and secrets and plans to make tomorrow night the best party Olympus had ever seen.

"…sneak into the drinks?"

"…to take Chiron out of…"

"Something that stimulates the…"

"…steal some of the Aphrodite kids' love potions and…"

Curfew was about to strike when we finally went to our cabins. I was staying in the Hermes cabin anyway, so at least I wouldn't be walking into the cabin alone. After changing, I plopped into my bunk, which was the upper one next to where Travis and Connor slept. Then, under the cover of darkness, we passed notes that solidifies tomorrow's plan.

_Are the invites ready?_

Mattey's making them right now and will send them first thing tomorrow morning.

_And the escape plan?_

**Mattey's gonna work his part tomorrow and I just need to…acquire a few things.**

_So we should be good?_

Perfect

**This is a pretty amazing plan. It's big, it's complicated, and it's going to piss off **_**at least**_** ten people. I think I love you.**

_Love you too. :P Who else could help me pull this off? Now go to sleep, I'm tired and we've got a lot of work for tomorrow._

Yes, ma'am.

_**Your wish is my command!**_

Do you have a pair of sock I can borrow?

**Or some toothpaste?**

_GOODNIGHT_

I crumpled the paper into a ball and put it under my pillow when Connor threw it back asking for my underwear. Then, since he was the one next to me on the top bunk, he leaned over the head board and whispered to me.

"I take it that's no?"

I gave him a nice punch to the jaw that shut him up until the next morning.

They woke up bright and early, and they unfortunately took me with them. By the time we had all gotten ready, every kid in their cabin over fourteen had these nifty little devices in their hands that shot an invitation out at them, and when they read it, it disappeared. We got ours when we walked outside. Mine was just a pair of wings that settled into my open palm and sang me the information. The Stolls' were twin stacks of money with the information carved in copperplate onto the bills. I gave them both victorious high-fives. Phase One complete.

It really amazed me Mattey could do with metal.

So the invitations had been sent, read, and then destroyed. On to Phase Two-preparations to bust everyone out of camp and get to Olympus. Dionysius was up on Olympus already, helping Apollo prepare for the party, since we was, well, the god of parties, so all we had to do was take care of Chiron, and we would be good to go. Argus was a different story, but he couldn't talk, so he wouldn't be able to spill.

We skipped most of our real lessons for that day in preparation. I was going around, collecting tux sizes, dress sizes, color preferences, shoe sizes, lists of any makeup and jewelry that certain people just had to have, so I was all over the place for the morning. Mattey was in the middle of creating an electromagnetic pulse generator that would disable the harpies for the night, since we had to leave after curfew. The Stolls were going to lure Argus into the woods by saying that there was a hydra there, and then trap him in an electricity-riddled cage that would turn off at dawn.

In the meantime, I had to go shopping.

By the time I had collected everyone's preferences, it was nearly noon and time for Phase Three to begin.

"Chiron?" I walked over to him with Annabeth, Rachel and Juniper flanking me. He turned and looked at us. "Can we talk to you in private?"

Now he looked worried. "Of course, girls."

When we were away from everyone else, it was time for me to put on a show. I began wringing my hands and glancing all around, fidgeting and not staying still, acting nervous and concerned for something.

"We need to go into the city to buy stuff."

"Now, girls, you know I can't let you do that."

"No, you don't understand!" I let tears well up in my eyes. "It's a personal issue."

"I think you're right-I don't understand."

"It's a _feminine_ issue." I tried to make motions with my hands, but he stopped me with a flush in his cheeks.

And at that, he got it, and agreed to let the four of us go into the city to buy products.

"That was awesome! How did you know it was going to work?"

"Because there is nothing that skives men out more, no matter how long they've been alive. They just want to get off the subject, and will pretty much let us do whatever we want."

We cackled together, and I saw our four threads glow for a moment and when the light subsided, there were thin, thin strands connecting us. I smiled, we grabbed some real clothes, not just the camp T-shirts and jeans, and we loaded up into the bus, driven by Argus. Halfway to the city, and I sent a memo to the Stolls and Mattey via a mechanical messenger pigeon, telling them that we were almost there, and they needed to get a move on obtaining the items while we had Argus away from camp. They replied with an affirmative, and then they pigeon flew out the window and combusted.

We had changed in the van, and now we looked normal, at least, but I had no idea what Juniper would look like to the mortals.

Argus dropped us off at a shopping, and we told him to go back to camp, since we would be a while, and once he was out of eyesight we sprinted for the nearest taxi cab.

"Saks Fifth Avenue, please."

The cabbie looked at me without belief, but I just stared back, and he drove on with the smell of coffee and cigarettes surrounding his head.

"Mira...we can't afford that. Well, Rachel can, but Juniper and I…we just don't have that kind of money." Annabeth looked worried, but I patted her on the shoulder and whipped out a credit card.

"Don't worry. I've got it covered."

Her eyes widened. "Is that your parents'? Won't they get mad if you use it?" Then confusion ripped across her features. "Wait, who are your parents? You've never mentioned them."

"I've been living in foster cares since the day I was born. Like The Fates said-my mother died young. I've been moved from house to house across this country so many times, I've probably lived in very state. Hawaii is beautiful this time of year."

Everyone's face darkened. They had grown up with at least one parent. I had grown up with many.

"Oh, gods. I'm sorry. That must've seemed so rude. I swear I didn't know."

"Seriously, it's okay. They all hated me-I was the 'problem child' of the system- and I hated them. I caused trouble, and destruction seemed to follow me around. This," I held up the credit card. "Is my most recent foster home's. They're stoners, though, so they won't even notice the missing money. The government won't notice it either, because they have a tendency to spend a lot in one place."

Silence followed my speech.

"Ever been to Vegas?"

For the rest of the ride there, I recommended places to go, things to do, and delicacies from all over the world (one of my families loved to travel). By the time we got to Saks, they were so filled with culture I thought they were going to burst.

"Rachel, you should do the talking. People are bound to recognize your name, and then we'll get helped easier."

So she went up to the front desk, did her 'I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, now do what I say' act, and we were ushered into a luxurious dressing room with couches, end tables and a chandelier.

"This is awesome…" Juniper, who wasn't much for society but determined to get a dress for Grover's sake, was amazed at the niceties they had there.

A blonde attendant of about nineteen with a sense about her that almost seemed out of place, came in and offered us assistance. She asked us what colors and styles we liked.

"Green. Anything green. And it needs to be loose!"

"Nothing too flashy. In a neutral color, like brown or gray."

"Something very dark blue; something that goes with my hair."

"Anything and everything, please!"

She smiled at us, and went to retrieve our dresses.

Juniper fell in love with the first one she tried on. It was a very, very pale green, loose, with a low neckline and tiered ruffles, and it looked great against her skin. Rachel found hers pretty quick as well, but it was far different. It was a deep blue, ruffled on the top and tighter on the bottom, cinched with a thin belt. It was obvious that she had shopped her before and, even though she was all eco-friendly, she liked indulging her feminine side as well.

Annabeth was a different story. We forced her into dress after dress, all in neutrals, nothing that was too flashy or too bold, and she looked great in all of them, but she couldn't be satisfied. I thought we were going to have to just buy one for her without her liking it, but after fifty dresses and her going invisible twice, she finally found one she liked. It was one the attendant had brought in, and I'd assumed it was for me since it was so not what she asked for.

It was sleeved, and longer than what Juniper and Rachel had gotten, but it was cinched at the waist, and it was greenish-blue leopard spotted. It looked almost like the sea, and then I saw why she liked it so much, even if she didn't-it reminded her of Percy, so she stepped out of her comfort zone to be closer to him when she wore it.

"Damn, girl. That's some impressive dressage you've got there!"

"I never would have expected to like it but…where did it come from, anyway?"

The attendant waved from the background of the mirror. "Me! I had a feeling you would like it."

There was definitely something different about her. I stared at her for a bit, squinted my eyes, scrunched my face up and examined her thread, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Mira! Your turn!"

And so it was.

I ended up liking a bright pink bandage dress with a cut out back and an interesting halter top.

"Well…maybe you shouldn't get that."

Annabeth and Rachel looked at each other guiltily.

"Why not?"

"Aphrodite." Was I imagining it, or did I see the attendant suddenly go very, very still? "Red and pink are sort of her colors. She might feel upstaged or get mad at you, and you really don't want that."

"Aphrodite?" I laughed at them, and I saw the attendant stiffen even more. "She's the most beautiful woman that has ever, or will ever, live. No one can upstage a person that attractive."

The attendant smiled at me through the mirror, and then I _finally_ got it.

"Hello, Lady Aphrodite."

She giggled at the looks on the other girls' faces as they turned and stared at her. "Oh, I just _had_ to come and help you with this! Using all your resources to sneak out of camp to attend a party of the gods? What better place for me to help then when you went shopping? And trust me, Annabeth-Percy will _love_ that dress. And Grover will love yours," She winked at Juniper "And tonight, Nico and Apollo will both suddenly have a burning desire for the color pink." I blushed, and my face started to match my dress.

We all just sort of gaped at her. The goddess of love was here with us, in Saks, of her own will, helping us pick out dresses for our oh-so illegal escape to Olympus.

I took that fact and ran with it.

She helped us pick out shoes, accessories, jewelry, dresses for the other girls, suits for the guys, perfumes, undergarments, and even some extra stuff that we didn't feel we deserved. The whole time we were giggling and gossiping, Annabeth and Juniper dishing about their respective boys, everyone trying to get Rachel to renounce her virginity as the Oracle, and everyone getting me to just talk.

In the end, Aphrodite paid for everything with a swipe of a hot pink credit card, which was good, because the total ended up being more than $50,000. We thanked her over and over again, but we could tell she just liked to shop.

She drove us to camp, but not into it, because we technically weren't supposed to be out at all. Right before she left she hugged us all, which pretty much shocked the Styx out of us, and she giggled mischievously.

"I gave you all a gift!"

We glanced at our bags, trying to tell her that this was gift enough, but she went on.

"Well for one, the clothes, but for two!" She squealed with delight. "I blessed you!"

None of us quite got it. "So we'll be forever loved…?" Annabeth inquired.

"Oh, no! It's much more simple than that. When you need to, you can call a boy's name and he'll come to you! Now, I can't make sure that he'll do what you want, but he will always come find you, wherever he is! Just concentrate really hard, and he'll come! Good luck!"

She disappeared with a wave, a smile, a puff of pink smoke, and the strong scent of perfume.

"Well…" I turned to the rest of the girls. "This makes getting back into camp a lot easier. We don't have to worry about Argus, because he should be in the woods by now, and we don't have to worry about Chiron because the Stolls and Mattey have just caused a giant explosion, and the only thing worrisome is other young campers!"

"So what are we going to do?"

Juniper, who was still unfamiliar with the outside world, just wanted to get back to her tree, realized she could just poof back, and she did, leaving three of us.

I smirked at Annabeth and Rachel. "Shadow-travel."

"I really hope this blessing thing works!"

I laughed, concentrated really, really hard, and said "Nico."

It was as if I whispered it and shouted it all at the same time. The trees stirred, the ground trembled, and for a moment, there was silence. Then he appeared out of the shadows next to us, looking dazed and confused.

"Mira..?"

"Hi! We need your help."

Once I explained everything to him, amidst some very odd looks, he agreed to help, and grabbed as many bags as possible while Rachel, also stuffed with bags, clung to his arm. He came back empty-handed, then loaded up again, this time with Annabeth, dropped her off, and came back for me. There were maybe five bags left, and those contained only my close friends' clothes.

He held out his arm with a flourish. "All aboard, madam."

I grabbed it without hesitation. "Where to?"

"Hermes cabin, please."

There was this amazing feeling of nothingness, and then we were in the dark of the cabin. "Whoa."

"Pretty cool, right?"

I grinned at him. "Like I said before-neat trick."

He laughed at that, and then in the silence we realized that we were alone in the cabin. I shuffled my feet and settled the bags down around me, an intense, awkward heat rising through me. Looking at him, I guessed that he was in the same way, but I couldn't be sure.

"Well, uh, I've got to go."

"Sure, sure."

He began to step back into the shadows, preparing to move to his own cabin.

"Wait!"

He stopped short, his eyes whirling. "Uh, thanks."

"Welcome."

Then he stepped into the dark, and he was gone.

"Gods, Mira, get a grip on yourself. You have plans. Stick to them." I shook my head, and prepared for Phase Four.

Time to knock out Chiron.

I know you think I'm going to say we did some uber-godly special thing to knock him out, but we didn't. We roofied him. I went to see him in the Big House at around four, and I offered him a tray of brownies as forgiveness for my…incident with Apollo. He smiled and thanked me; automatically eating a few just while I was in the room.

What can I say? My brownies were amazing.

He would be knocked out for a good twenty-two hours. I'd put enough Rohypnol in those brownies to knock out a horse.

Get it? Horse? Centaur?

No? Never mind…

Once he was out, all we had left to do was get dressed and ready and 'obtain' enough vehicles to bring us to the Empire State building.

Phase Five would be pulled off by the Stolls and Mattey once we got to Olympus, using love potions, heavy duty alcohol they swiped from Dionysius cabin, and some sort of transmitter thing that poked the part of our brain that lets us have fun with an imaginary cattle prod.

It was going to be a night to remember.

Just so long as we weren't drunk enough to forget.

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	8. Everyone Gets Sudden Memory Loss

**Hey again! Sorrry it took so long for me to get this up; I have limited use of a cmoputer where I am. But here it is! The next chapter is going to fill in the blanks of this one, so you'll just have to wait a little bit longer! Once again, if anyone has an opinion about the one-shot with Mira and Apollo, just tell me in a review!**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Nico's POV<strong>

The camp was in complete chaos, and we could blame it all on Mira.

All the kids in the Aphrodite cabin had set up stations in the middle of the ring of cabins, and there were lines of teenagers just waiting to get themselves dressed and styled and poked and prodded. If they were smart, they would have been charging for these impromptu makeovers. Everyone was getting so into this party thing that they forgot for a moment that they were descended from gods, and they were just having fun.

Not daring to cross the invisible line that separated the guys from the girls, dates were being made and yeses and noes were thrown to each gender like breaths. I hadn't asked anyone to go with me, mostly because I just barely made the age limit and most of the girls were scared of me.

At least that's what I told myself.

Apparently, while all the havoc was going on outside, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Juniper, Rachel, Mira, the Stolls, Katie and Mattey ( when did we get some many friends?) had commandeered the Big House and were using it as their personal pre-party headquarters. I walked up to it with my suit in hand, and heard music blaring from someone's speakers and female giggles and smelled the scent of perfume.

I walked into a sight so weird I don't think I'll ever forget it.

The two rooms were directly across the hall from each other. The guys were off to the left where the Stolls, who were apparently used to getting dressed up for big-ticket events-probably to pull off a scam-, were teaching Percy and Mattey how to tie their ties correctly while Grover chewed on a pillow. The girls, in the room to my right, were all dressed up except for Mira, who was practically wrestling with Annabeth in her attempt to put makeup on her, while Rachel was doing Juniper's makeup in shades of green, and the music was coming from a set of speaker's attached to somebody's iPod. They were making the whole place smell like expensive lotions and fruity perfumes and new clothes.

"Nico, my man!" Connor swaggered up to me, a glass in his hand that I assumed to be wine. "Get dressed! We're leaving in ten minutes and we've got some serious places to _be_!"

"Are you guys all drinking?"

"Yes. It's amazing what those Dionysius girls can do with grapes and a little convincing." He winked at me, and shoved me into the bathroom to get changed.

Five minutes later, I was outside, waiting for the girls with the rest of them, a glass of wine in my hand.

Connor yelled out the door. "Stacey-go to the party with me?"

I thought I heard a muffled shout back, and from his grin, I guessed it was a yes.

The girls filed out in a scented, giggly mess. Juniper was wearing what looked like a piece of fabric with strings for sleeves, but Grover seemed to like it, which wasn't something I really wanted to think about. Annabeth was covered up and her outfit was really colorful for her, but once again, Percy liked it, so I guess it was good for them. Rachel was in blue, and Mattey grabbed her arm, even though he knew he wouldn't be getting any. I quickly did the math when Katie walked next to Travis in some tight grey…thing. Connor was outside with Stacey, and the only ones left were Mira and I.

Dear gods.

She was in a body-hugging, bright pink, short little….it was just stunning. I couldn't describe it to you now if I tried; all I can really remember is that it looked amazing on her.

She smiled up at me, and I could tell she'd had a little to drink by the rosy color that seemed to have spread through her-unless that was just my vision going pink from the heat that suddenly filled my cheeks.

This was crazy.

This was so, _so wrong_.

She had been with _Apollo_. He was the freaking player of the universe. Don't think I hadn't noticed how they'd been with each other when he came to camp. He had obviously staked a claim on her. And it was his party we were going to-because of her thing with _him_. He would get pissed at me if I tried anything, and then I'd be fried by the sun or something…right?

Even with all this hanging over my head, I couldn't help but thinking that she looked beautiful.

And so I smiled right back at her, and she took my arm.

Damn Apollo to Hades. If anyone asked, I was blaming it on the alcohol.

There was a mess of fancy sports car waiting for us in the parking lot. "Do you know how to drive?" Mira looked up at me with her eyes all wide and moony, her voice a low, breathy whisper.

I tossed the rest of my drink into my mouth, the glass into the bushes, and winked at her. "I do now!"

She laughed in exhilaration, and even though I knew it was the alcohol for both of us, I couldn't help but just be so happy. We hopped into a canary yellow Porsche, shoved Rachel and Mattey in the back seat, and drove to Olympus.

The roads were spectacularly clear for New York, especially for that time of night. We sped along, somehow without an accident, singing to the radio and taking sips of a bottle of vodka Mattey had in his jacket.

We parked the car haphazardly, now stumbling a little bit, and duped the man at the desk into letting us up the elevator. Almost as if we knew that this would be out last really fun time in a very long while, we sang and danced in the squished ride up, but got very, very quiet as the doors opened. We put on our somber faces, and walked the walkway to Olympus.

The beauty of it never failed to amaze me. Now, I'm not one for architecture and decorations, but you could only dislike the way Olympus looked if you were blind. We followed signs left conveniently for us-not officially, of course. They were signs like a passed out nymph, or an empty bottle. Finally we got to our destination, amid much giggling and tripping-Apollo's palace. I don't know what it looked like on a normal day, but right now it was covered in everything a party could want.

The party had already started when we arrived, everyone decked out in their best dresses and suits, the gods shining and laughing and not bickering for once. For a moment we all were just lost in silence, and then Connor called my name.

He wanted to ask me about something but I didn't really pay attention, and when I turned back, Mira was hugging some blonde woman, who was whispering in her ear and making her giggle in agreement to whatever she was saying. I was about to go back to her and talk, but I was pulled away by Connor again when he said he needed my help. Apparently this was Phase Five of their plan, and he needed a lookout.

Supposedly there was a giant bowl filled with a drink that would become whatever you wanted it to be once it was in your glass. Connor was going to slip a splash of love potion in their-not enough to make everyone fall in love, just enough to make them happy and love everyone equally-along with three bottles of vodka. I watched for him, warning him whenever someone came by, and it was pretty successful.

Then there was a hum, and I swore I felt someone poke my head, but then it didn't matter because this was the best party _ever_ and I was gonna have fun! I guessed that this was Mattey's fun-making machine, since all at once everyone started smiling and laughing and dancing like crazy. I looked around for Mira and found her, but then I realized who she was with.

Apollo.

That pretty much killed my good mood beyond anything that Mattey's could electronically stimulate. So as she danced and laughed with her perfect sun god, I went and sulked in a corner, nursing my glass of whatever-the-Hades-it-was. Three nymphs came up to me and asked me to dance, but I glared at them to send them running, and melted into the shadows for a while. I wasn't going to shadow travel away from here, because what I imagined them doing was a whole lot worse than what I could see them doing.

And so for a good two hours, I sat in the dark and watched the gods and the rest of them enjoy themselves. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I recognized her as the blonde that was hugging Mira before, but now I could barely even concentrate enough to tell you what she looked like.

"Hello, Nico!"

"Uh, huh, hi." I couldn't even speak in her presence.

"So I was over there with Ares and I noticed that you seemed lonely all by yourself! So I'm sending some love your way in the form of a certain pink-wearing friend of ours!" She grabbed me by the shoulders for a brief second and I just about passed out, but I could tell that she was being serious, even through my lust-struck haze. "Don't screw this up."

And with that Lady Aphrodite was gone, and I was left with a lingering sense of arousal, but I blamed that on the alcohol. I leant against the wall to steady myself, and I realized that the party had gone from bad to worse while I was looking for Mira. Instead of the music being customized to each person's ears, someone, probably Mattey, had hooked up an iPod and had set it to a mix of club music. There were groups of people doing shots off in side of the main room, and there were trails of discarded clothing leading out of the room where couples had escaped to more private places. There was wild dancing going on all over the place, and the food had been all but forgotten-the only refreshments anyone was paying any attention to were the drinks.

I heard a pair of heels click unsteadily up to me, and I turned and saw Mira with two drinks in her hand.

Ah. 'A certain pink-wearing friend of ours' must have meant Mira. (I was still shocked about how Lady Aphrodite had talked to me personally.)

She gave me a wide, lopsided smile, tripped closer to me and shoved at me. "Hey sexy!" She giggled and plopped a wet kiss on my cheek. Her breath smelt of wine and whiskey, and it was amazing that she was still literate, because she was completely hammered.

"Whoa, okay, Mira."

It didn't matter quite how hard my heart was beating. It didn't matter how much I wanted to grab her and return her kiss. It didn't matter how gorgeous she was, or how hot my face got at her touch. She was completely stone-drunk, and I wasn't going to take advantage of her when she was like that.

"Come on, di Angelo! Drink!" One of her arms when around my waist, the other shoved the drink at my lips.

"Ah, I don't know if-"

"_Nico,_ come on! It's a party! Have some fun!" Somehow the glass appeared in my grasp and she had her hand on my arm, begging me to drink it.

Just then, someone turned on a slow song, and everyone grabbed partners.

Her eyes alit with a childish glee. "Oh! Let's dance!" She started to drag me towards the middle of the floor.

"Uh, I think we should stay here. What if…what if Apollo sees us?"

"So? What's he got to do with anything?"

I tried to ignore the fact that she had just basically dissed a god, and instead chose to focus on the fact that she was still able to talk.

Connor came up behind her and asked her to dance.

She gave me such a pained look. One that so obviously said 'Make your move, boy-stand up for me." that for a second I wondered if she was even really drunk.

I did nothing, said nothing, still scared of Apollo's wrath, no matter how much like a teenager he may act.

"Sure, Connor. I'll dance with you." Mira-oh gods, Mira-looked at me with such a want and such a disappointment as she walked away that it snapped my sense of reality. As they waltzed to the middle of the floor, I saw him put his arm around her waist, and my control broke.

I was losing her to Connor Stoll. It was the little bit of alcohol that I'd had that made me think that I was losing her when I'd never even had her in the first place. But at that moment, I didn't care. I decided to grow a pair and step out of the shadows for once, so I chugged the drink Mira had handed me, and ran to get her back.

"Hey. Hey! She's already taken."

Connor almost looked like he was willing t fight me on the matter, but when Mira dropped his hand and ran over to me, he just shook his head and gave me a thumbs-up.

"I'm so glad you could make it!" Her arms went around my neck; mine went around her waist, and I was beginning to feel the full affect of the drink.

"I'm glad I could make it too, Angel."

She giggled. "Angel- I like that."

"Good."

We danced and we laughed in our alcohol-fueled haze, and then a nymph was offering us a tray of shots.

"Oh, yes, thank you." Mira grabbed one for each of us, and the nymph flitted away, but I stopped her from swallowing it.

"Whoa! I think you've had enough!"

"So you have them!"

It took me a second of looking at her to agree, and after that, the burn of the alcohol and the sense of Mira pressing herself against me was the last thing I remembered.

I woke with a groan, only half conscious, to feel something warm pressed against the left side of my body. I tried to open my eyes, but it was so bright it made my head throb. My throat was dry and it hurt to breathe; I was lying on what I guessed to either be a pile of sheets and pillows, a very large couch, or a bed. I was betting on a bed. Since I wasn't going to open my eyes any time soon, I groaned again, and tried to feel my way around. I felt what I thought to be the edge of whatever I was lying on, grabbed a couple of pillows, and assumed that it was, in fact, a bed, and that I wasn't alone in it.

My senses were slowly returning from the haze of sleep. I realized that I was lying in my boxers, partially covered by a silky sheet, and that the warmth on my side was a woman.

"Oh, gods." It hurt to speak.

My other arm was trapped under the girl's body, and I was desperately hoping it was someone I knew and not a totally stranger. I could feel warm, smooth skin beneath my trapped hand, and I used my other hand to try and pinpoint who was wrapped around me. Looking back, that probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I was hung-over and drowsy from sleep.

Under my palm and my inquiring fingers I felt miles of skin, and two tiny pieces of cotton, and then I felt the girl stir. I stopped moving, letting my palm rest on what I assumed to be her waist, and pretended to be asleep.

She woke up in much the way I did, with a groan and a rapid couple of blinks, but instead of feeling around for specifics, she stumbled to the window and closed the blinds, enabling us to see. I pushed myself up in bed and stuttered my eyes open to see a dark-haired beauty in white eyelet undergarments. She groaned a second time, and stumbled back to the bed, and it took a few more blinks for me to fully understand her facial features.

"Mira…?" She looked at me groggily, squinted her eyes like she was trying really hard to see me, and shook her head.

"Nico?"

"Uh-huh."

"Shit…What happened last night? The last thing I remember is talking to Annabeth about half an hour after Phase Five started, which means it was an hour after we got here at all…?"

"I don't know exactly…" What I did remember I wasn't so sure I wanted to be sharing with her, and what I didn't I was scared to know.

"You're hiding something."

"No I'm not…"

She crossed her legs and plopped down next to me, obviously not caring that we were both only half dressed.

"I can see it in your thread that you're lying. What do you remember?"

And so I told her. In fact, I probably told her a little too much, since that included my watching her and Apollo. We both blushed when I got the parts where she called me sexy and I called her Angel, but we were both pretty drunk, so I guess we had an excuse.

Mira fell forward onto her face so that her feet were practically lying on my head, and she moaned. "Every part of me hurts. Why the fuck can't we remember anything?"

Almost instinctively I grabbed her feet and started rubbing. "Well, it probably had something to do with your imaginative Phase Five."

"Hey-don't mock the plan. I mean, it worked out pretty well given what you can remember."

Just at the moment I was about to say something back a third, equally bleary face pushed open the door. It was Mattey, and he looked about as hung-over as I felt.

"Hey guys-uh-"

He appeared dumbfounded by how not-dressed we were, a fact that we had forgotten in our headachy state.

"It's like eleven, and we need to get back to camp before Chiron waked up so…"

"Thanks, man. Is everyone this hung-over?"

"Yeah, pretty much, even the gods, it looks like it. It was a pretty intense party!" A smile lit up his face and it dawned on me that he was at least eighteen, and yet he still came to camp as much as possible. It made me wonder what his life was like, but he was out of the room before I could ask any more questions, probably to wake up the rest of the campers, so we decided to get dressed.

It took me a while to find my pants and by the time I did, I realized that Mira was wearing my shirt.

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"My shirt?"

"Well you didn't expect me to walk out there in my dress, now, did you?"

"Yeah, I kinda did. Now what am I supposed to wear?"

"Just throw on your jacket."

"So you want me to walk around with half a shirt on. What do you think I am-a male stripper?"

"Just shut up-half dressed looks good on you."

I guess we were on closer terms now that we had woken up in the same bed together. So I sighed, threw on the jacket, and proceeded to carry Mira's shoes for her as we walked outside.

It was like they had taken us and made copies.

From all over Olympus, bedraggled couples were stumbling out of rooms and corners, many of the girls wearing the boy's shirts, much to my chagrin. Hair was messed up, buttons half done and shoes were all in hands. I even thought I saw Zeus and Hera crawling out of a room with their clothes half on, and I nearly stopped short in surprise, but then Mira and I saw Percy and Annabeth, jumping out a window in Athena's palace and we went to help them down.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Our parents were blocking the door!"

"What?"

"We don't know, just help us get down!"

Once everyone was safely on the ground, we speed-walked to the elevator, and we got out own car to ride down in, since everyone else was still walking towards us.

"Does anyone remember anything from last night?"

We traded stories, and we found that I remembered the most, that Mira had snuck off with Apollo a couple of times, and that Annabeth and Percy's parents had actually been getting along. There was a bunch of other random stuff thrown in there, but we didn't have time to think about it, because then we were at the ground and we had to race to a car (it ended up being the same one Mira, Mattey, Rachel and I had driven here in last night) and we sped back to camp, our heads throbbing the whole time.

We got there with plenty of time to spare, since Chiron was still asleep, and everyone else got there in time as well. We went to lunch obediently, and we thought we were in the clear, since when Chiron did wake up, he just acted as if he had slept late. Everything ws going according to plan, aside from the memory loss, and a sense of cheer was returning, despite all the headches and nausea.

Then a TV appeared, front and center, and everything_ really_ went to Hades.

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><p><strong>Remember to review! XD<strong>


	9. We Have A Situation

**Sorry if this took a while! School's just starting up again, and it's been a liiitle hectic! Anyways, here's the next chapter, and remember that I need your reviews to make things better! This chapter is a little slow, but in the next one things start really picking up, so I promise not to disapoint!**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise, or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Chiron's POV<strong>

I had no idea what was going on.

My head hurt, my legs felt like jelly, and it appeared that I had been asleep for the last twenty hours. Given the looks of the most of the campers and the fact that Dionysius was missing, something had most certainly happened last night, and I was willing to bet that the TV had something to do with it.

It was a nice TV, a giant flat screen that put most movie theaters to shame. I wasn't sure how it had gotten there, but it looked like Hephaestus had something to do with it, since it had his look of workmanship and no mortal could construct a TV like that.

The screen flickered to life, revealing a shot of Apollo's palace, and a gravelly voice rolled from invisible speakers, proving that this _was_ the work of Hephaestus.

"There was a party of the gods last night, but it wasn't just for the gods."

The screen changed to a shot of camp, and it took me only the slightest bit to realize that it was showing two nights ago, when Apollo had visited Mira, much to my dislike.

"One certain sun god took it upon himself to invite his summer fling, who just so happens to be a demi-god, and he tells her to bring her friends."

Now it's a shot of Apollo and Mira talking after I left them. We see her punch him in the shoulder, which elicits gasps from everyone, and we see him kiss her on the cheek, which makes the Aphrodite girls squeal. I glanced over at Mira, where she was sitting with Annabeth and her siblings, and saw that her face was bright red.

"Plans were laid."

Now it was a series of spitfire snapshots of Mira, the Stolls and Mattey, first conversing in the dark, next passing notes in the Hermes cabin, then of Mattey building the invitations and two devices that I wasn't sure about, Mira asking everyone for outfit preferences, Mira, Annabeth, Rachel and Juniper on the ride to get their 'feminine products' with Argus, them sneaking off to some sort of high-end clothing store, them shopping with a woman I could only assume to be Aphrodite, the Stolls trapping Argus in the cage I had found him in earlier, Mira pouring little pills into brownie mix and giving me the brownies, the whole Hermes cabin raiding a car dealership, Mattey using one of his devices to knock out all the harpies, and finally nearly half the camp climbing into sports cars and driving to Olympus.

They were going to be in so much trouble.

"Dates were chosen, faces primped, and yet when they finally got to Olympus…havoc broke loose."

Now it was a full video-we saw Nico watching out for Connor Stoll as he slipped something into the drink bowl (So he was in on it too? Conspirator…) and Mattey placing the second device and changing a switch to the 'on' position. After he flicked that switch, everyone seemed to start enjoying themselves just a little too much.

"It is at about this time that everyone's memory began to go south, and that's also when everyone started _really _having a good time."

It showed shifting scenes of dancing, drinking, and frequent glimpses of the campers and the gods engaging in less…appropriate activities.

"But who cares about generalizations?"

At this the camera zoomed up from Olympus, over to Hephaestus's forge.

"Let's talk about specifics."

He gave the camera a devilish smile-this was all so unlike him, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe something Aphrodite had done had set him off. It wasn't uncommon, you know.

"Let's check in on my darling _wife's_ newly demoted second favorite couple-Percy and Annabeth."

Even from their separate tables, I could see them fluster-did no one know what went on last night?

"As you can see, they were all over each other for the entire night…"

At this, something happened, and we were sent inside the film, as if we were being projected into it.

Percy and Annabeth were giggling with each other, holding tight to the other's body, obviously completely wasted.

"Let's go find somewhere more private!" Annabeth, who looked uncharacteristically slutty (where was this coming from? Had Hephaestus's angry bug gotten inside my mind as well?) whispered into his ear. Percy kissed her, and nodded. They stumbled off together, and we followed them as they went, kissing and murdering the whole time, until they found Athena's palace.

"Hey…hey, this looks familiar! Let's go in here!"

"Anything you want, babe."

'Anything he wanted' ended up being sex, which we should have seen coming, and then the screen flashed forward to the morning, when they woke up with groans and the surprise that they were completely naked.

"What the…?"

Annabeth stumbled to the door, a sheet wrapped around her, and she looked outside.

"Goddammit, Percy! We're in my mother's palace!"

"Are you kidding me?"

"No! Let's get dressed and get _out of here _before she finds us!"

We say a tastefully arranged scene of them re-clothing themselves, and then they were walking out the door when Annabeth put her arm out.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"There's someone on the floor…"

"Well, who is it? Get closer!"

"I'm trying!"

"…..so who is it?"

"Dear gods."

"What? Who is it?"

"It's…our parents?"

They looked at each other incredulously.

"What?"

"They're asleep at the table! It's not like that!"

"What do we do now?"

"Windows!"

"Huh."

"We go out the _windows_, Seaweed Brain."

"I'm way too hung-over for this…"

They tip-toed back to the room and began to launch themselves out the window. Mira and Nico met them, and we realized that she was wearing his shirt, and that she had a gold chain around her neck.

I looked over at Mira to see her checking under her clothes for the necklace, and finding it. It was a simple gold chain, adorned with one charm- a delicately strung bow with an arrow lodged and ready to fire. She blushed, glanced towards Nico, who was watching the chain on the screen intently, and stuffed it under her clothes again.

"Let's return to the beginning of the night, and Lady Aphrodite's _favorite_ love triangle- Mira, Nico, and Lord Apollo."

Murmurs started up around camp, and Mira went even redder.

"She arrived at Olympus on Nico's arm…"

It showed them in the car, on the elevator, and walking through Olympus to Apollo's palace. When they got there, we saw Lady Aphrodite hug her, and in that hug we saw her do something fanatical with her hands-it appeared that she cast a dust over Mira's head. Once she released her, there was a glazed, dreamy look over her face. We all watched as Nico was distracted while Mira was talking to Aphrodite, then again while she was talking to Annabeth, and by the time he turned back to her, she had been whisked away by Apollo. Then, somehow, it appeared that Nico sunk away into the shadows, and we watched Mira and Apollo dance together.

She was tipsy, he was buzzed, and they were slow dancing way too close for my liking. (I know that I can't control who my campers decide to have relationships with, but this was certainly inappropriate. She was barely of the legal age!) My thoughts didn't last long, as I was physically sucked back into the odd movie that had appeared.

They were giggling in a way that only lovers could, and by the way he was whispering down into her ear and holding her, I had a feeling that it wasn't something they'd want the rest of us to hear. Unfortunately, the camera zoomed in on them and we could hear what they were saying. I expected it to be bad, but they had apparently finished that part of the conversation.

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"Nowhere. Everywhere. I have something to give you."

"I like the sound of that!"

At that they stumbled to the door, grabbed a couple more drinks, and whispered and shared dirty secrets the whole way to a room on the very top floor that we assumed to be Apollo's private bedroom. They kicked their shoes off and flopped on the bed, which was large and luxurious and gold.

"Oh! It's so _warm_!"

"I'm the sun god, sweetheart. _Everything_ I do is hot!"

"Really?"

"Yes."

She leaned toward him and whispered "Prove it."

"_Gladly_."

He gave her a smile that made the Aphrodite girls fawn, and then he rolled over on top of her and began to kiss her. It was sped up, but we watched them partially disrobe, and then it blacked out and fast forwarded again. I looked at Mira, disgusted at Apollo's use of her, and noticed that she was just staring, white faced and shaking, at the screen as it showed her fault for the world to see. Next to her, Annabeth was gripping her wrist with a vengeance, and Nico was watching with the same silence as Mira.

We returned to them when they were standing next to each other, clothed again, Mira in her full outfit, Apollo just in the bottom half of his.

"Was that what you had to give me?"

He grinned at her again. 'Well, that was definitely part of it." He gave her another kiss, which she accepted for a little bit and then pushed away. "But this is the rest. Turn around."

She did as he asked, and he latched the gold chain around her throat. "Wow-it's beautiful! Thank you!"

"It's not supposed to be just from me." He wrapped her up in his arms, and we could see her face growing warmer from the heat that we were left to assume came from him. "Zeus wanted to have something signifying that you didn't belong specifically to any god; that you belonged to all of us, so he had Hephaestus make the chain indestructible, and when we feel it's time, we give you our charm to put on it. So there's no jealousy, you know-since we've been hooking up. But I wanted to give mine to you first so…here."

"Thank you, babes."

She gave him a quick kiss, and departed the room.

We watched as Apollo put his hand to his lips, and smiled. A sense of wonder filled the camp. Did Apollo actually have…feelings for her? As in, more-then-just-a-fling feelings? The Aphrodite girls seemed to think so, and I was disgusted with myself for even toying with the idea.

They set up split screen, so we could watch now as Mira walked back into the main room and as Nico got advice from our resident Lady of Love. Mira spotted Nico and grabbed drinks; Nico stood flabbergasted. When Lady Aphrodite walked out, Mira walked in and grabbed him; we saw their entire conversation, from how Mira threw herself at him to how he stole her back from a Stoll.

They were dancing, and we saw them take some shots, though it appeared that only Nico actually drank them.

"Come to bed with me." Mira leaned up and whispered in his ear.

"What?"

"_Come to bed with me."_ This time it was a growl.

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Of course it is! Come _on_, di Angelo."

"Of course, Angel. Anything you want, Angel."

They stumbled away, out the same door that Mira had gone through before with Apollo, and we thought we saw her glance over her shoulder once with a look on her face that looked not drunk at all, but then she returned to Nico, and we were left to wonder. They took a different path and found a smaller but equally luxurious bedroom down a side hallway.

"Come here, Angel."

We had to deal with another scene of Mira kissing someone, this time a boy of fifteen who couldn't be more different from her first partner. By the time they were half-undressed, both in in only their underthings, they had moved to the bed. Mira was giggling like crazy, but she looked very, very sleepy. Apparently Nico, who still had some sort of common sense left, could see that, and so he just lay next to her and they both fell asleep.

We returned to them the next morning to watch the scene, up until when they helped Annabeth and Percy out of the window. The movie then went on to show everyone else in the camp and all of their exploits, which were all very similar in the manner of what happened, but at the end, there was a single scene in which we saw what appeared to be a young boy in the middle of Central Park, his face obscured by shadows.

Three pairs of hands reached out behind him and grabbed him up, and all we saw was his face distort in surprise. I recognized that face. He was a son of Hermes, one of the boys at camp. What was he doing in the city?

We were thrown forcibly out of the video, and with a solemn "Good Night" from Hephaestus, we were back in the real world.

It was dark-the move had taken up at least four hours of our day.

Connor and Travis stood in a frenzy. "Was that Brandon? What happened to him?"

Everyone was in an uproar, but I remembered something that I thought I had forgotten-five other faces turned towards me, and I realized that they had remembered it too.

_(To follow the thief in the dead of day)_

Rachel stared at Mira, who in turn looked at Annabeth, who flipped her head around to find Percy, who was already up and grabbing Nico. They raced to the Big House, and I left Mr. D, who had conveniently just reappeared, to deal with the campers whichever way he could. I looked at their faces, and at the faces of the Stolls, who came along, and of the frightened face of Tommy, a twelve year old son of Hermes who had raced after us.

"We have a situation."

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	10. Nico And I Learn To Never Spy On A God

**So I know I haven't updated in just about forever...but here you go, readers! The next chapter! (Finally!) I hope you like it :) i had a smidgeon of writer's block so it may not be up to par...tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer-I don't own, nor never will, own the Percy Jackson franchise.**

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><p><strong>Percy's POV<strong>

Thirteen hundred stab wounds, eleven disembowelments and a beheading.

The dummy never stood a chance.

It had been two days since we watched the video and discovered that something called Geryon was snatching children- _half-blood children-_ and I was unable to do anything about it. Any sort of miraculous escape had been completely shut down by Chiron, who had at least five harpies watching the seven of us at all times. Annabeth, Nico, Mira, Connor, Travis, Rachel and I were under constant supervision. Given that we had almost no idea what we were dealing with even though we had proved our worth many times before, we were strictly forbidden to leave the camp unless we wanted to get eaten alive by harpies.

"Gods, just let me _leave_."

"Hey." A hand grabbed the handle of Riptide to stop me from beating the Styx out of a second dummy. "You can stop now."

I turned with a vengeance to find Annabeth facing me. "Stop? How can I _stop?_ Innocent children are being kidnapped and _I'm not being allowed to stop it._ We have all this power and we're not being allowed to use it! _What good_ does it do if all we're able to do is _NOTHING?"_

She looked at me calmly, not at all fazed by my violent outburst.

"Like I said, you can stop now. We found something."

They found something.

_Dear gods, 'we found something' was code for 'we made a plan to escape, meet at the rendezvous point now.'_

To Nico's cabin, we go.

We made his cabin our base of operations because no one ever goes there and he can keep the harpies away by secreting some weird I-am-the-son-of-Hades-and-you-will-obey-me gas, or something. I really didn't care how it worked, as long as if worked. So Annabeth grabs my hand as we leave the arena, and I smile and apologize for freaking out.

By the time we get there, everyone else was sitting in random spots around the cabin-the Stolls and Rachel were in the back planning something on a series of whiteboards, chalkboards and cork boards covered in notes and technicalities, Nico was sitting in a corner eating a bag of chips, and Mira was playing with…a pair of swords?

"What," Annabeth and I said at the same time "in the gods are those?"

She looked up at us like a child on Christmas. "Swords! Mine, I guess. Nico said they were here when he woke up."

Nico looked up at us lazily, seeming half asleep but also half uncaring, as if how his life turned out from now on meant nothing to him. I'm guessing that his apathetic mood was the cause of a certain Daughter-of-The-Fates, so I decided I'd cheer him up, just later.

"What? Oh, yeah, there was this package that showed up on my doorstep with her name on it and those things inside."

Mira gave him a look that was positively teary-Annabeth squeezed my hand a little harder, as if to reassure herself that I was still there-and I examined her swords.

They were of a decent length, maybe two feet of a pure silver blade and half a foot of what looked like leather, but was a really dark russet color. The blades extended straight for about three inches, and then turned out and around into a pair of wicked curves that were essentially the shape of crescent moons.

"Those are pretty awesome."

She tore her eyes off of Nico for a moment, and nodded at me with a half-hearted smile. "Yeah, I guess they are. I think…I think they're from my moms."

"OKAY, lovers, quarreling not-couple filled with sexual tension! We have an announcement!"

The Stolls and Rachel were standing at the back of the cabin, feet spread and arms crossed, looking like a trio of angry henchmen. Mira and Nico glanced at each other and then the floor, Annabeth squeezed my hand again, and we all just shut the Hades up.

"So here's how it's going down…"

It was surprising simple and explosive at the same time.

Tomorrow, at six in the morning exactly, Travis would blow up a crate on the beach while Mattey set the climbing wall on fire (before anyone was on it). Then Rachel would run to Chiron in the Big House yelling about a Prophecy she'd had involving the strawberry fields, drawing him there while the other campers and the harpies were distracted by the mini-bomb and the fire. In the midst of all the chaos, Annabeth, Nico, Connor, Mira and I would simply dash out of the camp through the main entrance by Thalia's Pine. After that, we would be free to go. Everything we'd need (like money, armor, spare clothes, etc.) would be gathered by Nico and put in his cabin tonight, since he could just shadow-travel to get whatever we needed.

To make it easier on all of us, Annabeth would just sleep with me so she wouldn't have to deal with running away in the morning, Mira would stay with Nico and Connor…well, Connor could take care of himself.

Everyone left, with Rachel having Nico shadow-travel her back so that Chiron wouldn't be suspicious of her, and Annabeth and I went back to my cabin.

"What do you think is going on?"

She turned and looked at me. "I don't know, Seaweed Brain, but we're going to find out. And when we do…"

"We're going to whup their ass."

A brilliant smile and a laugh flash from her for a moment, before fading back into the mask of stony indifference that she wore whenever we had a mission to complete. Tonight would not be a night for talking and fun little innuendos; we would simply lie in the dark and comfort each other against the trails we were soon to face.

Two hours later, doing exactly as mentioned in the latter, Annabeth was asleep and I was just resting in silence when the snap of a stick breaking and a quiet curse from beside my cabin was brought to my attention. All was quiet for a few moments, and then I heard footsteps continuing, probably on their way to the beach. Disentangling myself from Annabeth, I got up and followed them.

It appeared to be a girl, and she walked along the edge of the forest right down to the beach. I hid behind some trees and she didn't notice me as I tracked her. She plopped down on the beach with a groan, hung her head in her hands and ruffled her hair with a moody viciousness. I started to shift sideways so that I would be directly behind her when I tripped over something.

That something went "Ow!"

"Nico?"

It was whispered but audible, and the girl turned a little, assumed it was the wind through the tree, and went back to staring at the ocean and assaulting her hair. Once we were out of danger, I turned and looked at the person I had tripped over and thus landed next to when I fell-Nico.

"What in the name of Zeus are you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"I heard someone walk past my cabin so I went to check it out!"

"Well, Mira suddenly got up in the middle of the night, so I….kinda followed her."

"Why?"

"Why did _you_ follow her?"

"If someone's walking past my cabin after curfew, I wanna know why!"

"I thought she might have been feeling guilty and sneaking off to tell Chiron!"

"Okay, we both know that's a lie."

He opened his mouth to protest, closed it, shoved himself into a sitting position, and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right."

I sat up next to him, and we continued our watch on Mira, who was still moping at the sand. "You should just talk to her."

"What? Yeah, I don't think so." He glared at me.

"Come on! So she hooked up with Apollo...she hooked up with you, too!"

Nico blushed furiously at the memory that he couldn't actually remember, and shadow grew over his face. "Not in the same way. And she was hammered. She doesn't even remember it! And he gave her that necklace…"

"Yeah, a necklace from _all_ of the gods. And I don't know if you noticed, but Apollo asked her to come with him, while _she _asked _you._"

"Whatever you say, I'm not talking to her."

I started to make my case again, but then there was a flash of light down the left side of the beach and Apollo walked over, apparently without knowing we were there.

Nico stiffened and narrowed his eyes. "Perfect

"Hey."

"Go away." She kept her head in her hands.

"Mira, it's me."

"I don't give a _damn_ who you are, just _go the hell away._"

He chuckled and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her up to her feet.

"Come on, Mira…we've got something important to talk about."

"_I_ _said I don-_" Apparently she saw a certain urgency in his eyes and decided to listen. "Fine. What is it?"

He began to whisper to her, and we were unable to hear what they were saying.

"Try to get closer!" Nico gently shoved me towards them.

"Me? Why should I? _You_ do it!"

"No! They'll know it's me!"

"How could they _possibly_ know it's you?"

"Oh, look, now we've missed it and they're doing something weird."

Mira had sat down on the sand with Apollo lording over her, hands on his shoulders. He began speaking, and it sounded like voices sprang from the world around us-the oceans spoke, the trees whispered, the ground beneath our feet trembled with the low tones of speech. After a minute of answer and response between Apollo and the world, a light grew around the two of them, expanding so fast and so bright we had to turn our faces and hide our eyes against the nearest tree. When it was over, there was pure, indescribable silence for a second, and then the world restarted again.

"What….the _Styx_….was that?" Nico rubbed his eyes, trying to restore some of his vision, and I did the same.

"I think my eyes are pieces of bacon."

Thank gods, we remembered to whisper, because just then Mira stood up, looking a little shaky but strong, walked away, and Apollo turned and looked at the woods, practically at the exact spot we were in. Knowing that he had the godly power to see whatever he wanted to, we stopped moving, stopped rubbing, stopped _breathing_, or a good thirty seconds until he didn't that thing the gods do where they disappear.

The second he was gone we both pulled in a pair of gigantic breaths, and lay there enjoying the ability of not strangling yourself half to death.

"From now on…"A giant breath. "We don't, under _any_ circumstances…" Another breath. " Follow Mira, ever. Got that?"

Nico nodded his affirmation.

We parted ways for the night, and returned to our respective cabins, Nico shadow travelling back to make sure he was in bed by the time Mira arrived, and we waited until the next morning.

The plan went perfectly. Almost _too_ perfectly. I mean, they fell for it the first time, though that was more of a stealth mission then one that included bombs, but I thought they would have wizened up by now.

Mira and Nico were still in the same 'I like you but there's a lot going on right now and this is really awkward' state as they were last night, and I really hoped they'd snap out of it soon, because we really needed to concentrate on our quest, since there were only five of us (Travis refused to leave Katie) and the Prophecy specifically said six.

Anyway, we got out, Connor hot-wired the van and we were probably about ten minutes out of the camp when we heard a thump from the back, where all of our bags had been thrown.

"What was that?" Mira was glancing between the bags and everyone else in the van. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Could a harpy have gotten in?" There was fear in her eyes, which was surprising given her character, but when I saw how Nico automatically grabbed his sword and went to go check it out, I kind of got what she was trying to do. She figured that if she got Nico to feel like she needed him, he'd open back up to her. He was the one closing down the relationship, though she was the one hooking up with a god, so this was her way of trying to get it back to how it was before. Smart-sneaky, deceitful and mischievous, but smart.

What? I'm not as stupid as I look. I can understand things occasionally.

So Nico walked to the back of the van, sword extended, and pulled away the extra bags to reveal a frightening, terrifying…twelve year old boy.

"Tommy?"

"What are you _doing_ here?"

"Hey, my brother, what's good?"

Turns out, he was a true son of Hermes. Annabeth and I got everyone settled down, and had him explain.

"Well, I figured you guys were going to do something to get out and save Brandon-he's my full brother, you know, and I wanted to help him. So I hung around Nico's cabin and listened in on your plan. The harpies never really bothered me that much; I think they're pretty lazy, so they left me alone. SO when it was time for you guys to leave, I just left a little early and got in the van."

At this Connor turned around and gave him a high five, resulting in him taking his hands off the wheel, us swerving into the opposite lane, and a whole lot of screaming.

"Alright. We'll drop him off at the nearest gas station and have him make his own way back." Well, no one liked Nico's suggestion-he's too _young_, are you trying to kill him, that's my brother be delicate with him-so it was decided that he would come with us, but the second it was too dangerous he would be shipped right back to Camp Half-Blood.

Annabeth snuggled up to me in one of the seats, clinging to my arm and making me smile. "It makes sense. He's the sixth from the Prophecy, don't you see? He's supposed to be here…" After that she promptly fell asleep.

I turned around and looked at the small, blonde boy sitting three seats behind us, and realized just how young he was-twelve amongst nineteen and sixteen and fifteen. Mira caught my eye with a sad, small smile, and I know she felt it too.

There was no reason for him to be on this quest. It should have been Travis, or Grover, and we both knew that when someone wasn't supposed to be on a quest, they normally didn't last very long.

That poor, poor, innocent boy…he was just trying to help find his brother.

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	11. A Giant Destroys Central Park

**HEY GUYS! So I know it's been a while since I updated, but don't worry, I haven't given up. Here's the next chapter, and remember that critiques are always welcome! :D**

**Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise, or Rick Riordan.**

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><p><strong>Mira's POV<strong>

This situation was absolutely crappy. We were essentially following a ghost trail mixed with a red herring, we had that tag-along little kid-was he really only twelve?- and Nico was still pissed at me. I mean, it was understandable, but even when I sent my happy-happy-joy-joy vibes out over his thread, it didn't seem to make even the slightest difference in his emotions. I mean _what the fuck?_ I was hammered, I didn't know what I was doing, and I don't even _remember_ it! That has to count for something, right?

Ugh. Whatever. I could do without this drama right now, but I guess I don't have much of a choice.

"Hey Mira?"

Connor whispered to me from the driver's seat and I crept up the aisle until I was next to him.

"Yeah?"

"Can you wake everybody up? We're just about at Central Park."

I nodded and shuffled back, tapping Percy and Annabeth on the forehead as I went, shaking Nico's shoulder and jabbing Tommy in the side.

"Ow!" He rubbed his stomach where my finger hit it. "What was that for?"

I held my hands up. "Hey-you're gonna run away with us on a dangerous quest, the least you can do is learn to roll with the punches and take a finger to the side sometimes."

I stomped back to my seat, dutifully ignoring the glare Nico gave me as I passed him.

Annabeth looked at me, pity in her eyes, and I felt a swell of rage inside my stomach.

"What?"

She lowered her voiced to a murmur. "Just because you and Nico are having a spat doesn't mean you need to take it out on Tommy."

"I'll take it out on whoever I want, thank you very much."

The pity in her eyes grew, and it made me sick. I turned away from her and glared at the back of the seat in front of me.

Percy cleared his throat. "Ookay. Awkward."

Conner parked the van with a jerky halt, and we piled out in a sleepy, grumbly mess.

"Okay. We need a plan, because central park is freaking huge."

When all of us turned to Annabeth, she blinked a bit and then sighed, rubbing her temple. "Alright. We need to split up. Whatever took Brandon was big, really big, and it will have left some sort of trail, but since we don't know where he was taken, we need to cover as much ground as possible. Percy and I will head to the left, Connor and Tommy to the right, Nico and Mira to the middle. If you see something, shout."

Nico and I both opened our mouths to protest, but Annabeth held up one finger and shushed us.

"No arguments!"

We looked at each other sulkily, and I began to watch my feet.

"_And_ you two need to talk everything out and make up before we see you again. If you don't, I'm sending your asses right back to camp. Do you understand?"

We gaped at her with open mouths and she just stared stonily at us. Realizing that she wouldn't be changing her mind and that she probably would send us back to camp, I closed my mouth and muttered an accepting kind of noise. Next to me, Nico did much of the same, though his words sent a quick shiver through the earth at our feet.

Annabeth gave us both a giant grin.

"Great! Now, everyone needs to get a move on; we have a giant monster to track."

Everyone split and went to their respective sides, leaving Nico and I standing awkwardly on the edge of the forest.

I shifted back and forth on the balls of my feet, looking anywhere but him.

Nico cleared his throat. "Should we, ah, start looking?"

"Yeah, I guess."

With a few hesitant first steps, we moved slowly into the trees in front of us.

We were silent for a good couple of minutes, and I grew more and more tense as the time passed. I scratched my nose, I rubbed the back of my neck, I slapped at an errant mosquito, all the while resisting the urge to look at Nico and check to see if he was looking at me. Deeper and deeper into the woods we went, looking predominantly downwards and just searching for clues. Eventually I absolutely couldn't stand the uncomfortable silence anymore and I just stopped walking.

Nico paused and turned halfway around, looking at me, _really _looking at me for the first time since that goddamn video played, eyes like dead coals and boring holes into my conscience.

"What are you stopping for?"

"The second half of our orders, remember? We need to talk, and I wouldn't put it past Annabeth to ship us back to camp, and then we'll have to face Chiron."

He turned to face me fully and strode forward, stopping about a foot away from me and crossing his arms, looming in my personal space. "Fine. So talk."

I took a nervous swallow and met his gaze, as intense and angry as it was, and tried to choose my words very carefully.

"I know that how I behaved was really inappropriate. I have a tendency to be a very…sexual drunk. There are a lot of things I did at the party that could account for you being this mad, but I want to know exactly what I did that got this reaction from you."

Nico looked down at me for a moment, and there was nothing in his gaze-no anger, no pity, no forgiveness. It was just a black gaze of emotionlessness, and for a second it was incredibly refreshing, even though I could sense the turmoil in him through his thread.

Suddenly he sighed and uncrossed his arms.

"It's-it's not anything concrete, really. I don't have a-a _claim_ to you, or anything, and it doesn't even make sense but, uh," He quickly rubbed at the back of his neck and looked away from me, focusing on something near my shoulder instead. "It was when you…_canoodled _with Apollo." Suddenly his voice sped up, spewing out words and phrases lightening quick, and he waved his hands frantically, eyes flickering. "First off, I didn't like that in general and then immediately afterwards you come and dance with me like I'm some second hand knock-off that you play with whenever your prettiest toy is off on business. Then you get me so drunk I can't even _remember_ you asking me to go to bed with you-which is something I'd certainly like to remember, along with the kissing and the disrobing, thank you very much-and then you just fall asleep on me, apparently? That's real good for a guy's ego. You didn't fall asleep on _Apollo._"

He sucked in a deep breath, and I could only watch him, stunned, with my heart firmly lodged in my throat.

"Sorry. That got a little out of hand."

"Did you just say _canoodled_?"

He gave me a little smile. "Shut up."

I gave another swallow, trying to dissolve the lump in my throat, knowing it was my turn to speak. "Well, I can see how those are things that could make a man angry. Before I say anything else, we need to remember that I was drunk off my rocker and acting on basic instincts. That being said, I basically acted like a giant slut."

He coughed a bit in surprise and spluttered for something to say. "Well I wouldn't say-

"No, but I would, and we both know it's true. I was basically whoring around, and for that I am really, really sorry. It wasn't my intention at all to screw with you like this-I just wanted to go to a party and have some fun. With all this new Greek stuff going on I needed something normal, more basic, and there is nothing more normal for me than partying until I'm half dead. I didn't think it would have these kinds of consequences, and I would never have done it if I knew you would get this pissed at me. I like you, Nico, I really do, and I don't want to jeopardize that again."

He looked down at me with wide eyes.

"That was-that was great." He gave me a grin. "You really like me?"

All the air went out of my body in relief. "Yeah. Truthfully, if I had had a coherent choice in the matter, I would have gone with you instead of Apollo."

The smile on his face slipped into some sort of sordid amazement and he opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

"And if you're really that upset about missing 'the kissing and the disrobing', we can always try it again." I grinned up at him.

His eyes traveled all over my face, as if searching for a lie in my words, but soon he was smiling back at me.

"That sounds-that sounds really great. When can we-?"

I was about to answer when I was cut off by a frantic shout to our left. Apparently, Percy had found something.

Nico and I turned in the general direction of the shout, then back to each other.

"Maybe next time." We turned regretfully away from each other and began to trot off towards Percy and Annabeth.

Soon Connor and Trevor had caught up with us, sprinting and out of breath, and we eventually located Percy and Annabeth, both who looked a little disheveled, I noted.

"So what is it? What'd you find?"

Tommy jumped up to them, full of an almost tangible energy, and raced around the clearing looking for clues.

Annabeth looked down her nose at the kid, and then pointed to some trees behind them.

"Go see for yourselves."

Glancing at each other, Nico and I walked forward, slightly hesitant. Connor grabbed Tommy by the collar as he tried to dart forward, muttering out a low 'heel, boy' and snickering at the pained look on his face.

We pushed through the first couple of trees and found that they ended rather abruptly. It appeared that something had stepped on the trees and crushed them, flattening them into the ground and destroying them for about a hundred yards.

"Holy crap."

"Did a giant decide to nest here or something?"

I snickered at Nico as he knelt down and poked at the broken branches.

"We're assuming it was Geryon, since he is a giant and able to cause this much destruction." Annabeth stepped out from behind us. "And we think we have even more of a lead."

The five of us turned to her, and Connor plopped down on the grass under one of the remaining trees.

"More of a lead than a giant hole in the forest?"

"Shut up, Connor." Annabeth sat herself down as well, and the rest of us followed suit. "Rachel just Iris messaged Percy and I with some information she dug up on who or what monster has a thing for children, and she found that there's a daemon named Lamia who-who eats children, and apparently there have been four disappearances of half-bloods over the last month."

"That's disgusting."

Annabeth shifted a bit on her haunches. "Yeah. And after Chiron realized we were gone, he figured that we'd need all the help we could get, so he told Rachel that Lamia had been imprisoned in a cage thousands of years ago, way back in Ancient Greece. As far as he knows, she's still there."

"Wait-but if she's still there, how is she taking the children?" I had started leaning against a still-standing tree.

"Well, she's not-the Geryon is. They likely have some sort of arrangement or something."

Percy sighed and ran his fingers roughly through his hair. "Alright then. How do we stop them?"

Annabeth grimaced. "We'd need to locate Lamia's cage, travel to Greece, get inside the cage without opening it, then kill Lamia and the Geryon, all before any other children could get taken."

Everyone was depressingly silent. I sucked in a deep breath and put my face in my hands. "Well, fuck me sideways, we've got a lot of work to do." I couldn't help but notice that Nico started a bit at the sentence. "Where are we supposed to start?"

"Well," Annabeth stood up and helped Percy to his feet as well. "I suggest we go and try to look up where her cage is. I can't think of anything else at the moment."

"Where the hell are we going to find information on shit like that?" I muttered, discontent, as we started off towards where we had ditched the van.

Annabeth grinned at me. "We're in New York! Where do you think?"

I furrowed my eyebrows and opened my mouth to speak as she clapped me on the shoulder and steered me onto the sidewalk.

A couple blocks and a few hurried, expletive-filled conversations later, and we were standing at the base of the steps of the New York Public Library. Annabeth was smiling hugely, and the rest of us were just kind of sulking behind her as she grabbed Percy's hand and pulled him up the steps. I sucked in a deep breath to steady myself, and calmed the nervous fluttering in my chest.

"Come on, guys! Research time!"

Nico snickered at me when I rubbed my temples and muttered a few choice words to myself.

"Cheer up. At least we're not getting attacked by anything." He bumped my shoulder and walked past me.

Connor was throwing his hood up over his head and covering his face.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not allowed in there." He whispered and steered me in front of him.

"Why?"

"There was an unfortunate incident with Mentos and a barrel full of Coca-Cola. One of my greater achievements, but the librarians did _not_ appreciate it in the same way. At all."

I decided not to question it. Figuring I needed to grow a backbone and get this over with, I strode forward and pushed through the door and past the lady at the front desk as quickly as possible. The others had set up shop in a back corner, well out of the way of prying eyes. Annabeth had disappeared into the rows upon rows of books, and Percy and Nico were lounging in a pair of chairs around a small circle table. Connor, deciding we were far enough away from the front desk, dropped his hood and plopped down across from Nico, and I took the seat between the two of them.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and ran my fingers through my hair. "Man, I hate libraries."

Nico gave me a look. "Why?"

Settling deeper into my seat, I shut down the part of my mind that started burning. "No reason. I just-I came to one with an old friend."

"And?"

I looked at him, and tried as hard as possible to stop anything from traveling over the thread from me to him. "It just didn't agree with me."

He looked as if he were about to say something more, maybe ask some 'deeper meaning' questions (as if I hadn't heard them all before), but just then Annabeth returned with an entire cart of books.

"Oh dear gods."

Connor banged his head dramatically against the table, earning us a vehement _shush_ from an old lady a few tables away.

Dumping stacks onto the table, Annabeth grabbed a book with a smile and settled into her own chair.

"Come on, guys, this is a group effort."

Barely keeping myself from jumping out of my seat and sprinting out of the building, I plucked a book from the top of the stack and settled in to read.

Lucky for me, it was entirely in Ancient Greek, which I could _barely_ read. This was going to be fucking _fantastic._

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